Alfa Laval to help rebuild a school in Kerala

Pune: Swedish manufacturer, Alfa Laval, said that it will help rebuild a school in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. The company, which has its India head office in Pune, said that the over 80-year-old government school has been in bad shape after the floods.

“The Monkombu vocational government higher secondary school is one of the worst flood-affected schools as per information from the state education department at Kuttanad, Alappuzha district,” said the company in a statement.

Alfa Laval's cluster president and managing director, Anantha Padmanabhan said that the re-development of the school draws inspiration from some of Delhi's municipal schools, where the state government has transformed the classrooms into chic digital classrooms.

He said that the company will first build classrooms and toilets in the school with the help of local NGO — CETA Galaxy. Then in the second phase, the company will try and make digital classrooms out of the existing classrooms.

Padmanabhan said that when he came to India in 2017, he felt that there was a need to pick projects that will be more sustainable rather than just doing too many projects. So, the company has mostly focused on education and sanitation.

In sanitation, it has helped built 1,800 toilets in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Navi Mumbai.

Padmanabhan said that the company was initially focused only on Maharashtra, where it has helped build classrooms in Bhor and also supported a school near Lavale with a scholarship scheme.

“We then realized that we have to also look at other states as we get 75% of the company's business from states other than Maharashtra,” he added.