Assystem Stup Gears Up to Support India’s Ambitious Path Towards a Nuclear-Powered Future
Assystem STUP Is Ready to Support India’s Nuclear-Powered Future
Preparations are underway at the award-winning engineering consultancy, Assystem STUP, to partner India in its vision for a low-carbon economy anchored by over 40GW of new nuclear power.
The firm, which has a long history in civil engineering, is tapping into the resources of parent company Assystem to bring a comprehensive engineering, digital and project management offer, supported by a large talent pool with strong technical capability to a swathe of nuclear new build projects in India.
India’s Nuclear Energy Ambitions
Today, India has an installed capacity of approximately 416 GW, with thermal power sources such as coal, oil, and gas accounting for over 60% of its energy generation. Recognising the need for a greener and more sustainable future, the Indian government has set its sights on achieving net-zero emissions by 2070. To accomplish this goal, the replacement of all fossil fuel-based power generation is imperative.
The State of Play for Nuclear Power in India
Currently, nuclear power accounts for less than 2% of India’s overall energy supply, however nine nuclear power plants are presently under construction, and further plans have been announced for an additional ten reactors, with tenders already floated for two reactors and eight more in the pipeline.
Over the next decade, a total of 19 reactors are expected to be under various stages of construction. In addition, 18 imported reactors are planned, including the 9900MW Jaitapur project, which is set to be the largest nuclear power plant in the world. Overall, India plans to build around 37 reactors over the next two decades, underlining its commitment to expanding nuclear power generation.
Small Modular Reactor Technology
India is also exploring the prospects of Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology. SMRs offer potential advantages in terms of flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and construction efficiency. The government is actively considering the deployment of SMRs as part of its long-term energy strategy as a replacement for the aging thermal power plants.
Assystem STUP’s Expertise
To support the country’s nuclear construction projects, Assystem STUP has been actively involved in the design of containment structures. With a total of 16 indigenous PHWR nuclear containment designs under its belt, STUP’s contribution represents the evolution and advancement of these crucial engineering components in the field of nuclear power.
Assystem STUP will also tap into an international skill base provided by parent company Assystem, such as siting and environment service specialists in Turkey, grid infrastructure professionals situated in Uzbekistan, and whole nuclear lifecycle and construction management experts in France and the UK.
Dr Kalirajan Sivagnana, Senior Vice President and Head of Energy, Assystem STUP, said: “Assystem STUP is proud to contribute to India’s ambitious drive towards a low-carbon energy mix, underpinned by nuclear power. With our comprehensive engineering, digital, and project management expertise, supported by a talented team of nuclear professionals, we are dedicated to supporting India’s nuclear new build projects. Our commitment to the Indian government’s ambitions aligns with our shared vision for a sustainable future powered by clean energy.”
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Assystem STUP awarded 3D and 5D modeling scope on a large water treatment plant
Assystem Stup has been awarded a 3D and 5D modeling contract on a large water and effluent treatment plant which involves supporting the client to build a state-of-the-art treatment facility. Assystem’s advanced 5D Building Information Modeling (BIM) solution will enable accurate estimation, tracking, and control of project expenses throughout the construction process.
Assystem Stup uses its digital expertise to generate insights that helps water assets become more cost-effective.
The contract entails assisting the client to gather data, work smarter, perform better and use less energy. Assystem Stup will deploy its industry-leading knowledge with cutting-edge digital expertise to define, develop, and implement bespoke solutions for the projects. Assystem’s digital technologies will reduce the burden of low-added value tasks for engineers. The quick and efficient development of new infrastructure, enabled by the adoption of these tools, will help sustainable management of water resources, benefiting thousands of local people.
Victor Richet, Assystem Stup, Digital Head, said: “By creating a comprehensive digital model inclusive of up to 5D BIM technology, we can accurately attain a level of precision that allows us to improve preparation and planning, minimise errors, optimise project parameters, ensure efficient utilisation of resources during construction, and identify and manage bottlenecks and roadblocks earlier. Through Assystem Stup’s digital expertise, we can provide our client with unparalleled technical and financial control, ultimately resulting in timely completion and reduced costs.”
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Assystem Stup walk-in drive leads to over 28 hires in Bengaluru
Assystem Stup has launched a series of multi-day walk-in recruitment drives in its offices across India with a view to bringing in skilled engineering talent which will support the development of low-carbon infrastructure and drive the country’s energy transition.
From 6th to 8th April 2023, prospective candidates, including recent graduates and experienced professionals, were invited to Assystem Stup’s Bengaluru office to gain insight on the range of exciting projects the company is involved in. Over 28 hires were made as a result, including Lead Engineers, Bridge Design Engineers and Water Design Engineers. Further events are set to take place at Assystem Stup’s offices in Mumbai and Kolkata.
Assystem Stup is focused on developing new solutions to build faster, improve the performance of complex infrastructures, and accelerate the development of nuclear and renewable energies, electricity networks, hydrogen projects and low-carbon transport. Its mass hiring drives are being conducted to meet the rising demands of the business to support forthcoming projects.
The company is seeking people who relish a fast-paced working environment and bringing value to clients. Assystem Stup is committed to providing opportunities to its employees to work on complex projects, where they can demonstrate their ability to innovate to the benefit of the company’s clients, local communities, and India’s energy transition as a whole.
New employees will join Assystem’s Switchers community – a 6500+ strong collective of experts who are committed to addressing climate change through the deployment of low-carbon energy and infrastructure solutions. They will have access to extensive training programs and opportunities for career development within Assystem via the company’s internal Switch and Act for Knowledge platform.
Assystem Stup is a diversity-focused business, invested in recruiting women to exciting new roles in the energy transition, transportation, infrastructure and digital business. This vision is being achieved through a series of recruitment drives and other inclusive recruitment practices, as well as through the training and mentoring initiatives delivered to women as part of the company’s recently launched gender diversity programme, Incredible women.
Ashish Tandon, Managing Director of Assystem Stup, said: “We are pleased to be able to offer so many exciting roles in the energy transition, transportation, infrastructure and digital segments, and welcome candidates from varied backgrounds to consider a career with Assystem Stup. Whether you have recently graduated or have more than a decade of experience under your belt, there are opportunities for you in our community of Switchers.”
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Assystem Stup launch ‘Incredible Women’
Assystem Stup launch ‘Incredible Women’ – an initiative to create an equitable work environment and reach workforce diversity.
Women are set to play a major role in India’s development in energy transition, transportation and infrastructure projects as Assystem Stup commits to sustainable progress towards gender equity and diversity. Under its gender diversity programme, the company launched ‘Incredible Women’ in the month of March, 2023. It states about embracing equality, diversity and inclusion.
The programme is focused on driving up the number of women in the company, particularly at senior positions and leadership roles through activity delivered across three pillars: Recruit, Retain and Evolve.
Through this initiative, Assystem Stup is taking steps to ensure that the company’s culture and inclusion practices reflect the company’s CSR commitments incorporated in its Switch and Act for People initiative.
Assystem Stup’s three pillars for the Incredible Women initiative
Recruit
Assystem Stup is seeking to increase the percentage of women recruited over the coming years through inclusive recruitment practices, which will be delivered through workshops from the talent acquisition team. Our training and awareness programme focuses on encouraging women to take up technical and scientific career opportunities. Our Management Team is committed to fighting against discrimination and gender bias, endeavouring to create a positive working environment which appeals to women employees.
Retain
Besides doubling the number of women in the company’s talent pool, Assystem Stup is identifying new ways to help keep its workforce motivated and satisfied. Under this pillar, the company has undertaken various initiatives to support the retention of employees:
- Sponsorship Programme: Assystem Stup has ambassadors in every region to ensure the delivery of the initiative locally and deploy actions which promote gender equality. The actions will be planned via conferences, exhibitions, and breakfasts with an inspiring speaker.
- Lunch & Learn: Targeting individual personal development, this event aims to help women achieve their full potential in the workplace.
Evolve
With a growing number of women employees, Assystem Stup is establishing career progression plans tailored to the aspirations of each member of staff. The aim is to ensure the progress of women employees and access to corporate hierarchical levels. Initiatives include:
- Management Team’s Commitment: Quarterly meetings with the management team to keep women employees informed about the roadmap devised for the quarter to maintain supportive working environment.
- Shadowing Programme: Providing women employees the opportunity to spend time with mentors to define their career path.
Additionally, Assystem Stup has introduced other policies such a:
POSH Policy: To protect women against any kind of harassment, in line with “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. We also promote “zero tolerance” of inappropriate behaviour. It also safeguards women against everyday sexism at work.
Care for You: We launched this initiative in the year 2022 with an aim to promote wellness programmes within the organization. Every month, under this initiative we have health talks on healthy lifestyle, nutrition, and fitness along with eye & dental camps.
The company is taking action to deliver gender equality by committing to the following:
- Everyone can fully participate in the workplace, regardless of gender.
- Equal pay and benefits for equal work and equal consideration of needs.
- Acceptance and understanding of, rather than discrimination against, those who have caregiving and family responsibilities.
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Assystem Stup expertise enhances India’s metro revolution
A metro revolution is underway in India, with many major cities developing their first rapid transit system or making significant additions to existing ones. Over two and a half billion people make use of India’s metro systems every year, and due to a growing need to provide urban populations with affordable, efficient, and clean transportation solutions, this number is set to climb significantly this decade.
Assystem Stup is supporting metro development projects in five major Indian cities.
Firstly, in association with Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, Assystem Stup will provide detailed design consultancy services for the Indore Metro Rail project, which includes 11 km of elevated viaduct and sixteen elevated metro stations. These modern stations will be powered by solar PV systems and will be built to green building standards.
Secondly, the company will carry out comprehensive architectural and engineering design services to support URC Construction in the design and construction of eight elevated metro stations for the Purple Line of the Bhopal Metro project, forming part of a 105km master plan for the city’s mass rapid transit system.
Thirdly, Assystem Stup will be proof checking the design of underground tunnels and three underground stations for the Surat Metro project, being developed by J. Kumar Infraprojects. This 3.66km section, forming part of Line 1 Sarthana – Dream City, will significantly cut journey times between Surat Railway Station, Maskati Hospital and Chowk Bazaar, a popular market in the district.
Assystem Stup will also be assessing the detailed designs for part of an underground extension to the Kolkata Metro, involving three underground stations, namely Birati, Michael Nagar and New Barackpur. The new Metro Line 4 route, owned by Metro Railway – Kolkata, will improve interconnectivity between Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport and Kolkata’s suburban districts by providing additional transport options.
Additionally, the company is supporting pre-tender activities for the Agra Metro project, which will provide a new transport option for residents and workers in the iconic city of the Taj Mahal. Furthermore, the company is gearing up to cater to burgeoning urban travel demands in cities such as Nagpur (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala) and Bengaluru (Karnataka).
These projects will benefit from Assystem’s expertise in digital processes, which will help to ensure they meet expectations in terms of schedule, cost, safety, and quality. For instance, the Indore metro and Bhopal metro projects will capitalise on our expertise in BIM (Building Information Modeling) wherein all the information needed for the design and construction processes will be incorporated and accessible by the project teams at any time and in any place via one single digital platform. This will lead to a reduction in loss of information and an improvement in the speed and quality of data exchange.
Ashish Tandon, Managing Director, Assystem Stup, said: “We are delighted to be playing a role in India’s metro revolution. As passionate believers in driving sustainable development in energy and transport, Assystem Stup’s experts will bring quality, credibility and modernity to these projects, and deliver the highest standards of project efficiency, quality and safety.”
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Assystem Stup switches on to accelerate low-carbon projects in India
Following an exciting first-year of expansion, Assystem Stup has launched Switch On, a bold new brand image, aimed at communicating the company’s mission to help its clients speed up the energy transition through its engineering, project management and digital services.
Since its acquisition by Assystem in June 2021, Asystem Stup has strengthened in its key markets of transportation and infrastructure, winning more than 50 new contracts and providing award-winning site-characterisation, project management, design and construction supervision for major completed projects including the recently inaugurated Atal Footbridge on Sabarmati River, the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, and India’s Eastern Freight Corridor.
Now the company is focused on growth in the infrastructure sector and expansion into the energy transition and digital markets, where it will tap into the well-established expertise of the entire Assystem Group. Assystem Stup will be active in transferring this knowledge to its teams in India, to support the development of new low-carbon energy projects, including mega developments such as the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant, and vital hydrogen infrastructure in partnership with developers like Hygenco in the coming years.
To enable this growth Assystem Stup is aiming to attract motivated candidates to join a new global community known as ‘The Switchers’ a 6,000-strong Assystem employee collective, with the mission to ensure a viable, efficient, and reliable energy future for all.
Assystem Stup has over 100 roles to fill in 2022 and this is set to increase significantly in 2023 to meet growing demand for engineers and technical leads for new projects. This, combined with a proliferation of works, has led to the opening of seven new offices across the country, further underlining Assystem Stup’s commitment to delivering India’s major infrastructure projects.
Assystem Stup’s Managing Director Ashish Tandon said: “Over the course of the past year, Assystem Stup has expanded to share our well-established engineering expertise across India’s key infrastructure projects, and our quality has been recognised with multiple awards for both the company and our talented specialists. Now, we stand ready to reinforce India’s energy transition, mobilising the collective strength of our Switcher community to deliver for low-carbon projects across the country, and accelerating these through our cutting-edge digital solutions.”
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Assystem STUP wins Hygenco contract to develop Haryana green H2 facility
Assystem STUP has been selected by green hydrogen infrastructure developers Hygenco to deliver engineering and project management services for the development of a new green hydrogen production facility to power a steel-making plant for one of India’s largest stainless-steel companies.
This is a new facility, located in in the city of Hisar, Haryana, that will be a key energy transition project in the region, delivering a carbon emissions reduction of 2,700 metric tonnes annually.
As part of the project, Assystem STUP will be responsible for delivering design reviews, engineering and procurement, construction and equipment supervision, schedule and cost management, clash detection, safety studies, compliance requirements and plant commissioning. The company will bring its well-established engineering expertise to the project, utilising digital solutions such as BIM and 4D scheduling to optimise performance.
The plant will produce low-carbon hydrogen via solar-powered electrolysis through a 2.8MW electrolyser for a 20-year period. The project also includes the construction of a hydrogen storage facility consisting of three tanks with a combined capacity of 35,000 litres.
India is targeting 60GW of green hydrogen production capacity, as part of a drive to deploy 500GW of renewable energy infrastructure by the end of the decade. Assystem STUP is being positioned to accelerate India’s energy transition by supporting new low-carbon energy projects across the country. The company has recently adopted the bold new Switch On corporate brand with a view to attracting hundreds of engineers who are committed to tackling climate change and contributing to the clean energy switch.
Assystem STUP’s Managing Director Ashish Tandon said “This project marks the first of many for Assystem STUP in service to India’s burgeoning hydrogen sector. With an ambitious target to produce 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030, India’s energy transition is well underway. As a company committed to the clean energy switch, we are expanding our teams to meet this critical challenge.”
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Assystem Stup playing a vital role in India’s electrified rail freight corridors
Assystem Stup’s experienced civil engineering teams are delivering key sections of India’s ‘Dedicated Freight Corridor’ projects, which will provide low-carbon transport routes to support the country’s booming levels of infrastructure construction and growing international trade.
The freight corridors are indicative of a strategic shift towards enhanced freight mobility, which will drive significant progress on the decarbonisation of the transport sector in India, as it is predicated that the Dedicated Freight Corridor programme could save over 450 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over a 30-year-period.
Assystem Stup is an energy transition company which is committed to supporting the low-carbon shift by enabling the use of clean energy in industrial sectors such as transportation. The Group has a pedigree in sustainable transport projects and is supporting multiple stages and sections of the development of two Dedicated Freight Corridors – one in the eastern part of India and another in the western part.
The company is providing innovative engineering and project management services for the design and construction of civil, building and track works covering close to 1000 kilometres of the length of the Western Corridor, as well as for the development of more than 550 major & minor structures such as bridges and flyovers, including two major steel bridges extending across Mahi and Sabarmati rivers.
Assystem Stup provided the same range of services for the Khurja – Bhaupar section of the Eastern Corridor, covering close to 350km of track and approximately 450 rail structures. This is in addition to topographical, geotechnical, and hydrological surveys, and soil investigations conducted by Assystem Stup’s site characterisation experts.
Due to an ever-increasing global demand for commodities, India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and the freight transport industry has a vital role to play in fulfilling India’s economic priorities. These dedicated energy-efficient freight corridors will not only decongest the existing railway network but also significantly reduce the time and cost of transportation logistics.
Assystem Stup’s Managing Director Ashish Tandon said, “International and domestic trade is an essential part of India’s growing economy. We are proud to be supporting the sustainable movement of goods with our award-winning project management and site characterisation capabilities.”
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Assystem Stup recognised by FIDIC for excellence in project management
The International Federation of Engineering Consultants (FIDIC) has granted two awards to Assystem Stup in recognition of the firm’s project management expertise on two major projects in India.
At an awards ceremony in Delhi on Friday, 17 December 2021, the international engineering body conferred an Award of Excellence for Assystem Stup’s delivery of a sustainable water supply in the Gadag district of Karnataka, as well as an Award of Merit recognising the firm’s work on the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Ashish Tandon, Managing Director, Assystem Stup, said: “We are delighted to have our engineering expertise recognised with two distinct projects that showcase the diverse range of capabilities within the Assystem Stup team.
These awards demonstrate that we are able to rise to any infrastructure engineering challenge, with our extensive experience in overseeing efficient, sustainable project development incorporating industry-leading digital solutions.”
Sustainable water supply to rural habitations
With climate change driving increasingly severe heatwaves during the summer months, water scarcity had become a major challenge for the rural Gadag district of Karnataka, which is home to more than 1.1million people.
In 2015, Assystem Stup was appointed to develop a 1500km piped water network that would supply clean water to 343 villages in the region from a nearby river reservoir utilising a modern supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and digital automation to audit the water quality and energy usage of the new supply system.
The firm completed the project in September 2018 and ever since the people of Gadag have been enjoying a 24/7 supply of clean water throughout the year.
Gold standard green construction of world’s largest cricket stadium
The Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium (formerly the Motera Stadium) was first constructed in 1982, and until 2015 accommodated up to 49,000 fans at international cricket games, including the ICC Champions Trophy. In October 2015, the stadium was demolished to pave the way for the construction of what would be the largest cricket stadium in the world, with a capacity of 132,000.
Assystem Stup provided technical and tender documentation services in the pre-award phase followed by project management and construction supervision including design review for this four-year mega project, which was successfully completed in February 2020 with gold certification from Indian Green Building Council. The stadium, a precast concrete spread across 63 acres, has since played host to nine international cricket fixtures.
FIDIC’s awards programmes recognise excellence and best practice in the construction and infrastructure sector and are coveted by global industry professionals. For more information, visit: https://fidic.org/events/fidic-awards