Home / NEWS / Materials / Geosynthetics underutilised in infra: Experts

Geosynthetics have a wide ranging applications in road construction (Pic for representation only)

Geosynthetics can be a better and cost effective alternative to other materials in infrastructure development but continue to be underutilised, according to experts participating in a conference in Mumbai on July 16, 2009.
Organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), the conference focussed on the opportunities and challenges related to the use of geosythetics in the field of civil engineering. The experts highlighted the effective use of geosynthetics in various infrastructural projects including roads & highways, airports (runways), railways, landfills, storm drainage, erosion control and so on. They felt that despite such wide ranging applications, the use of geosynthetics hasn't really taken off in India.
JC Parihar, Sr executive director, Research Design & Standards Organisation (Ministry of Railways), said that the industry must address the issue of standardisation and look at bringing down cost. SC Jindal from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) recalled how the NHAI had to import
geosynthetics in 1992 despite the presence of more than 30 Indian manufacturers.

Advertisement

COMMENT   Our company based in Kolkata is trying to convince every releted department both in state and central but nobody likes t   2 Comments Read more comments »

"We couldn't source the material from the Indian companies due to the lack of standadrisation," he stated.
Sudhir Mathur, head of the Geotechnical Engineering Division at the Central Road Research Institutre (CRRI) emphasised on the need for more R&D efforts in this field. "It is also necessary to evolve the existing codes and guidelines for the usage of geosythetics in infrastructure projects," he said.
The codes available currently include the IRC special publication No. 59 and the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways specifications for the road and bridge works (4th division) Section 700. "The latter is under revision at present," Mathur said.
Earlier during the conference inauguration, Jayprakash Dandegaonkar, Minister of state (textiles), Government of Maharashtra, said that while encouraging new technologies, it is important to utilise the abundant manpower available in the country both in terms of resource utilisation as well as employment generation.
The conference was supported by his ministry. The minister also assured the industry and the conference organisers that he would include geosynthetics in the state government's new textile policy and urge the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to consider geosynthetics in its projects.

---