Human lives in thousands have been lost due to potholes in Indian roads thanks to businessmen politician nexus, unscrupulous contractors and ultimately poor conditions of roads. Add to this the loss to vehicles plying on rickety roads, and the loss to the nation is staggering. Look at the roads in China or any other European country, we can only hang our heads in shame. If nonwovens have been used as the base material, the roads would not have deteriorated to the present condition in most of the States. India has the second largest road network across the world at 5.4 million km. The transport infrastructure sector in India is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.9 per cent through the year 2021, thereby becoming the fastest-expanding component of the country’s infrastructure sector. Here lies one of the biggest hopes for the technical textiles and also for the country. Not only roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructure are also on the rise, which present huge scope for growth of technical textiles segment. The Indian railway system, with a network of 61,000 km, is among the largest in the world,which again opens up huge opportunities for geotextiles. In this issue, the Government has a greater responsibility. Usage of many items of technical textiles is mandatory in various countries across the world, as it is in the interest of society at large and leads to social and economic benefit. Besides, establishing standards will help in developing products of global standards and better outreach to domestic and global buyers. On the part of the industry, it needs to identify opportunities for tie-ups of the Centres of Excellence with international research and development agencies for technical knowhow transference in R&D activities. The scope is in the building of infrastructure. The total estimated market size of buildtech in India is Rs 3,960 crore in 2016-17 which is a 12 per cent increase from Rs 2,514 crore in 2012-13. It is further expected to grow at 11 per cent to reach Rs 6,232 crore by 2020-21.
If this does not infuse hopes for the industry and the Government, what else can?