From India to the U.S.

EW hosts PAPL Corp. President and CEO KK Ravi. 

ELEVATOR WORLD was honored to host PAPL Corp. President and CEO Krishna Kumar “KK” Ravi in November 2024 during his first visit to the U.S. Headquartered in Chennai, India, and recently opening its first U.S. subsidiary in Columbus, Ohio, as well as its first Singapore location and Middle East subsidiary in Dubai, PAPL is looking to expand into North America and further into Southeast Asia — specifically, Malaysia and Vietnam. “Those places are growing rapidly,” Ravi observed. “Singapore is primarily a modernization market, so new projects are limited, but from Singapore, we are able to handle Southeast Asia and the Far East.” PAPL is currently involved in two projects in Malaysia and one in Vietnam. EW President T. Bruce MacKinnon, Executive Editor Angie C. Baldwin and Senior Associate Editor Kaija Wilkinson learned about Ravi’s own professional vertical-transportation (VT) journey, the origin and evolution of PAPL and its future directions.

As a child, Ravi wanted to be a doctor, but went on to study engineering and earn his degree in Bangalore, India, starting his career in a field unrelated to VT. He joined Otis as a graduate trainee in 1998, working there until 2005 when, guided by his mentor P V Narayanan (fondly known as PVN), he moved to Mitsubishi Electric. When Narayanan retired from Mitsubishi Elevators in 2007, he launched PVN Associates. Ravi joined PAPL in 2009 when the company had just two employees: Narayanan and Mrs. Kalavathi Rajagopalan. After successfully running PVN Associates for close to 10 years, PVN retired in 2016 and passed leadership to the next generation. The partnership firm transformed into a limited liability private company in 2016 and rebranded itself as PAPL Corp. Pvt. Ltd. in 2024. The company states: 

“PAPL is proud to have built a culture based on anticipating and understanding clients’ needs, then working in close partnership with clients and architects to make their designs stronger — more customer-centric, productive, profitable, capable of capturing market opportunities — and thus more valuable.”

Now nearly 50 employees strong, PAPL has grown multifold over the years, adding new operating territories and more verticals. Ravi told the EW team about major projects with which PAPL is currently involved, including six airports. “Infrastructure is a major business driver,” Ravi said, continuing:

“We are also proud to have worked on the elevator system for India’s Statue of Unity, the largest statue in the world, and one of the most talked-about airport projects — Bangalore International Airport Terminal 2. We do a lot of work for office buildings and tall residential buildings. We work in almost any type of building, even large-format retail spaces up to 6 million ft². We were involved in one of the largest warehouses in India.” 

As PAPL expands into North America, we hope to see more of Ravi, who said he aims to attend major VT events, including the National Association of Elevator Contractors convention and expo in Houston, Texas, later this year.