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Concrete is the preferred choice of material to build roads in most of the developed world. The US is often cited as the benchmark for rigid pavements. Concrete roads were first built in US a century ago, beginning with a six mile stretch. That multiplied to 11000 miles in 20 years. It is interesting to note that in US, the growth of automobiles is correlated strongly with the growth of concrete roads. Today concrete roads link the country’s west coast on the pacific with the east coast on the Atlantic. In a country where petroleum prices are much cheaper than here in India, it is cement rather than bitumen/asphalt that is the chosen paving material. The case for concrete obviously does not need to be proved in US. Concrete roads make up more than half their roads.
Concrete Roads – credible credentials
Just one glance at Mumbai’s most famous landmark Marine Drive will amply demonstrate the durability and resilience of concrete roads. Mumbai residents will scarcely remember a single day when Marine Drive was closed for repairs or maintenance, unlike other bituminous roads. Even after seven decades of its construction, this seafront arterial road shows few signs of distress as compared to much newer stretches built in recent years.
Since then, several sections of our national highways and city road stretches in Mumbai, Kolkata, Indore, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Surat including numerous fly-overs and bridge decks have been constructed surfaced with concrete and using modern sophisticated equipment and road-building materials and technologies.
An explosion in the population of automobiles in our cities and towns now swelling with sprawling residential townships, commercial estates, malls and multiplexes point to one of the most pressing problems of the time – coping with ever burgeoning public and private transport that challenges road traffic like never before. Urban planners have realized that a key ingredient in traffic management is the creation of an efficient city road network based on the ideal road surface. The adoption of concrete provides a sensible way to grapple with this problem.
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Cement industry
Unlike bitumen which has to be imported, cement is available in abundance in the country. Cement industry has an obvious ‘vested’ interest in promoting a larger share of roads using ‘home-made’ cement and concrete. The Indian cement industry has grown remarkably in the last two decades to emerge as the second largest in the world. India produces all types of cement available in the world and in terms of quality, efficiency and nearly all the other major indicators of competitiveness, Indian cement can match the best in the world; in several cases Indian manufacturers are global benchmarks. The industry today boasts of modern plants using state-of-the-art technology and process control systems that assure consistent quality and high compressive strengths. With a good countrywide spread of locations and efficient distribution systems, the industry is capable of supplying cement to the remotest site within hours.
Cement is the primary building material in India and likely to remain so in the foreseeable future. Anticipating economic growth, the industry is adding capacities that will create a healthy surplus in the next few years.
New materials & technology
The use of Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) coupled with the wider availability of bulk cement handling facilities have been responsible for redefining the pace and quality of construction activity in metropolitan cities and in mega infrastructure projects, particularly so in road building. The major advantages of RMC are higher levels of quality assurance, long term savings, and speedier constructions. It also permits overall better construction practices and eliminates the drawbacks of traditional labour-dependent hand-mixed concrete. Concrete batching plants now abound throughout the country and are visible even in Tier II and III cities.
Road building in India is no longer what it was a decade or two ago. New technology and the induction of sophisticated equipments have substantially accelerated the pace of road construction with a commensurate increase in the quality of roads. In the afternoon session today you will hear of the stellar role of some of our construction equipment manufacturers and construction companies in enabling major strides in the technology for building concrete roads
The road ahead
India’s development agenda for the 21st century cries out for new impetus to rapid advancements and progress in building roads which are so vital to our economy. The construction of roads has demonstrated that it can be a major development activity and quite literally the road to economic success. The long term implications and benefits of a national road grid augur well for urban and rural India, the Indian economy and industry. Multitudes of people including those engaged in agriculture, transportation and distribution of essential inputs and outputs will draw immense advantages from the building of an efficient road system.
With the progressive leadership we have in the centre as well as most of our state governments and cities today combined with the expert wisdom of our technical organisations joining hands with material and equipment suppliers, it is reasonable to expect that the decision to choose the best material to build roads will be based on criteria that embrace long term financial considerations over the short term ones. If that is done we do hope to see more concrete laid out on our roads in the days ahead.
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COMMENT
Dear Kumar, Asphalt, Bitumen & Tar is the same. Like all Oil-Refining Countries, USA too needs to dispose-off the last