Director general of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Prabhakar Singh has held this post since July 1, 2018. He has spent about 37 years with the organisation, serving in different capacities, having joined the central electrical and mechanical engineering service, CPWD, as assistant executive engineer in April 1982. During the span of his career, he has made exemplary and outstanding contributions to the areas of engineering, encompassing planning, estimation, design, project management, contract management, financial management, maintenance management, arbitration, e-governance, benchmarking standards, vigilance and administration.
Prior to joining CPWD, Singh made valuable contributions to Indian Telephone Industries at Bengaluru and Naini, where he was the head for the prototype pilot production unit of the research and development wing.
In his current capacity as director general, Singh is responsible for efficient administration of the CPWD, under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. With support from his highly qualified staff, he has transformed CPWD into a modern, efficient and focused organisation. Singh has also been instrumental in ushering in new systems in the area of e-governance and formulation of new policies for the department.
As director general, he is also technical adviser to the Government of India on matters relating to civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, horticulture and architecture. He also oversees the discharge of functions such as rent assessment, valuation, consultancy services, and processing of detailed project reports for development of urban infrastructure projects as part of various schemes of the government.
During his career, Singh has attended training programmes on low-cost housing in urban areas, the transition to efficient lighting, automation, control and building management systems, total quality management, contract and arbitration, special skill development programmes in illumination engineering, etc.
Singh holds a bachelor’s de-gree with honours in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He also has a postgraduate degree in business administration from the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, and a special postgraduate diploma in environmental management of human settlements from the Institute of Human Settlement, Rotterdam, Netherlands.