QUALITY DIFFERENTIATION

HMR Consultants is a premium environmental and engineering consultancy providing a range of cutting edge solutions to its clients. Mayank Singh reports

HMR Consultants (HMR) have a number of firsts to their credit – in 2004-05, when the Sohar Industrial area took off in a big way, HMR provided environment consultancy services to around 80 per cent of the companies. When integrated tourism complexes like The Wave and Sama Dubai started their projects it was one of the first consultants to be taken on board. Says Sanjeev Kulkarni, group general manager, “We caught various waves in the Sultanate’s development and each of these has taken us to a higher level in terms of our skill sets and associates.”

Looking back
HMR is a multidisciplinary engineering firm, with a proven track record of excellence in its practice. Established in 1994, it is an ISO 9001: 2000 certified firm. Its strong credentials has made it a preferred service provider with the World Bank; International Finance Corporation; UNEP (ROWA) and other leading national and international corporations and banks. With over a decade of experience in the GCC and MENA region its focuses on client needs and their unique requirements. “We believe in sharing our knowledge with our clients to develop innovative cost solutions that address our client’s needs,” says Suresh Kumar, group corporate manager.

HMR has developed an enviable reputation for providing service tailored specifically to meet client’s needs, establishing its place as the region’s premium environmental and engineering consultancy firm. Its strengths include a multidisciplinary consulting including a range of in-house technical specialists; a flexible and responsive approach to clients changing circumstances or priorities; an in-depth awareness of the needs of its clients; entrepreneurial business dedicated to providing innovative solutions and excellent corporate support in IT.

Its approach is to maintain a full range of in-house expertise; HMR provides a wide range of benefits to its clients through its commitment to knowledge of the environmental conditions across the region, its understanding of environmental regulatory framework in place and state of the art environmental monitoring equipment.

The service HMR provides is comprehensive and unique. Operating to international quality standards, with extensive experience in regional and global issues, HMR delivers tailored environmental solutions for every environmental issue. Key sectors in which HMR works includes – exploration, production for oil and gas and mining, refining and downstream petrochemicals, light and heavy industries, infrastructure and utilities, tourism and waterfront developments, energy and power, ports and harbours. Says Kulkarni, “Till 2003-04 most of our business was from Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), but since then we have diversified into various other verticles. We are thankful to PDO for their support during our initial days”.

Due diligence
Industrial, commercial and regional developments invariably require some form of environmental impact assessment (EIA) study proposed project. A first step in this process throughout the Middle East and North Africa is to undertake an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study.
HMR has extensive experience in conducting preliminary environmental feasibility studies and in undertaking full scale EIAs in all sectors. Says Kulkarni, “We have successfully negotiated per-mits for challenging situations such as coastal set back, conservation sites, archaeological sites, project early works, contaminated site remediation, marine dredging, land reclamation etc.” HMR has done such studies for a number of clients like Sohar Refinery, Dhofar Power, Oman India Fertiliser Company (OMIFCO), PDO etc.

Typically, clients and governments engage HMR’s specialised services in environmental monitoring and auditing right from the initial EIA and permitting phases through the construction and commissioning phases and seek continued support during the operational phase until fit-for-purposes environmental, health safety systems are put in place. HMR pioneered groundwater remediation at a historic leaking underground storage tank site in Oman having successfully negotiated clean up levels and treatment methodology with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs. Says Kumar, “We had worked with the Ministry of Environment to develop an IT system to build maintain and manage the database for solid waste, hazardous waste and groudwater pollution, on latest technologies.” “HMR is sensitive to its responsibility to the community and continues to promote social entrepreneurship and sustainability. This ethos is embedded in all aspects of our operational and commercial activities,” adds Kulkarni.

Broad based
Al Rawahy technical Services (IT division) has been formed by hiving off the IT services of HMR. RTS has been providing innovative solutions to its clients in the Public and private sector. RTS assisted HMR in the development of a Database Application for the Ministry of Environment. It also developed a unique application for the Ministry of Housing for Krookie printing. There was a remarkable improvement in efficiency and accuracy for delivering Krookie to the public. RTS also represents Mind Tree Consulting from India in Oman.

In an effort to diversify its offerings, HMR set up Simon Engineering and Partners (SEP) in 2007. SEP is a process oriented design and engineering company established in the Sultanate as a joint venture between Simon India Limited of Delhi, India and HMR. The company provides specialised design and detailed engineering services to the process industry. Its focus is on providing these services to the following sectors – oil and gas pipelines and facilities, refinery and petrochemical plant, downstream process industry, fertilizers and polymer plants, inorganic chemicals like chlor alkali plants, sulphuric acid plants etc, speciality chemicals and other sectors. Says R Ramdas, COO, Simon, “We are looking at local problems in traditional companies and are getting into strategic alliances with various industries in Oman.”

CAPE a subsidiary of SEP is a high intensity architectural, structural and MEP design and project management company based in Muscat, with satellite offices in London, New Delhi and Melbourne. These include residential, retail, tourism, institutional, governmental, commercial, factories, warehousing and infrastructure in Oman, India, Europe, the Far East and Australia. It has resident expertise with regards to the regulatory and statutory procedures of the various ministries involved in the development of the built environment. Further value is added by acknowledging the importance of the indigenous socio-economic issues, allied to a genuine appreciation of local customs and traditions. Says Damodar, general manager, CAPE, “We are working on 33 odd projects and have ramped up our operations from three to 36 people. In 2010, our aim is to grow upto 50 people and to double the growth at which we grew last year.” Having proved its mettle in the Sultanate, HMR is looking at expanding its presence to Qatar, Abu Dabi, Dubai, India and North East Africa (Sudan). The unrivaled domain knowledge and expertise that HMR brings to its clients, is sure to propel it to success across geographies.

Top^