Calcutta, Jan. 5: Minu Nariman Dastur, a pioneer of engineering consulting business in India, passed away this morning in Calcutta. He was 87.

Dastur, founder of M. . Dastur & Co (Dasturco), had nurtured the dream of an India self-sufficient in steel technologies and one of the largest steel producers.

Dastur’s philosophy was to utilise domestic skill and expertise and elevate them to international standards when the common trend was to use imported technology.

A graduate in electrical and mechanical engineering from the Banaras Hindu University, Dastur started his career with Tata Iron and Steel Company at Jamshedpur before obtaining his doctorate in metallurgy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1948 with specialisation in principles of steel making. In 1954, Dastur visited India as a consulting steel plant expert from the US on an USAID mission to the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, requested him to return to India and use his brilliance in the domestic steel industry that was still at a nascent stage.

Dastur came back to the country and started Dasturco in 1955. The company helped the country achieve self reliance in steel plant engineering and steel development. Dasturco was the first Indian ‘retainer consultant’ on steel to the central government and the principal consultant to the country’s first coast-based steel plant at Visakhapatnam. Dasturco has also prepared detailed steel development plans for several countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

He was instrumental in the formation of Indian Institute of Metals.