After commanding an Engineer Regiment of the Indian Army in peace and war Colonel Mahendra Mathur came to Tobago in 1975 as Director of Claude Noel Highway Project. During the construction of the Highway he was also Coordinator for development of Lower Scarborough and realignment of Steele and Cooke’s Rivers for flood prevention. On completion of Claude Noel Highway he worked as Technical Officer of Tobago when he lead a team to reconstruct Castara Road – a road which had been abandoned after a 1963 Hurricane had destroyed it by landslides.

As Technical Officer in the Ministry of National Security one of his major tasks was to save Staubles Bay Road – the only road connecting Port of Spain with the Army and Coast Guard bases – from sea erosion and reinstate it. He was involved in reconstruction of several Fire and Police Stations.

In 1989 he was asked to be the first Director of a newly established organization – National Emergency Management Agency in which capacity he formulated the Natural Disaster Preparedness Plan, Hazard and Response Maps, and Chemical Disasters Preparedness Plan. He also coordinated Government and NGOs efforts for disaster response, and was responsible for issue of Warnings, Training and Simulation Exercises, Collaboration with United Nations Development Programme, Scientific and Professional organizations, advice to public and private sectors on Disaster Prevention, Reduction, preparedness and Response.

Colonel Mathur spent four months at Oxford Polytechnic in 1992 doing research on Hazard Assessment. He organized Disaster Management Workshops for senior officials from public and private sectors in conjunction with the University of West Indies twice a year. In 1998 he retired from NEMA and was elected to be  the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Premix Concrete Limited. He resigned from that post in 2002.