TN, SVPITM organise seminar on geosynthetics

The Department of Handlooms and Textiles, Government of Tamil Nadu and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International School of Textiles and Management (SVPITM) have jointly organised a day seminar on geosynthetics for the Tamil Nadu officials involving in infrastructural development, Members of Textiles, Civil & Real Estate associations and budding entrepreneurs.

Dr C Rameshkumar, Director, SVPITM, welcomed the participants and informed about the initiatives made by the SVPITM and the Department of Handlooms and Textiles, Government of Tamil Nadu for the 300 young and budding entrepreneurs during the recent past in the areas of home textiles, industrial textiles, medical textiles, agro textiles and packaging textiles. He stated that this seminar was arranged in Chennai focused for the benefit of the Government executives involving in rural development, slum clearance, highways, corporation and smart city nodal officers.

Kumar Jayant, IAS, Principal Secretary Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textiles and Khadi Department, Government of Tamil Nadu & Board Member, SVPITM was the chief guest. He invited the participants to submit suggestions to the government, how the geosynthetics could be utilised for infrastructural development in Tamil Nadu. He narrated about the recent developments in the geosynthetic field and cited about the training provided to the technical textiles entrepreneurs by the Department of Handlooms & Textiles and invited the entrepreneurs to develop new products in the technical textiles which has growth rate of 20 per cent per annum.

Dr G Venkatappa Rao, Former Head – Department of Civil Engineering, IIT, Delhi, deliberated the participants titled overview on geosynthetics. He discussed with case studies on environmental protection and infrastructural development. He displayed various products that are classified under geosynthetics. He stated about 400 geosynthetics products are in the market and about 200 products are utilised in Indian market. The opportunities are very high and there are no threats for this new business penetration.

The roles of geosynthetics as separator, reinforcement, drainage, filtration, energy absorber container and Barrier were shown by him with necessary product display. His lecture session includes on woven and nonwoven geosynthetics, geo-net, geo-strip and geo-grid production process and product development.

M Venkataraman, President, International Geosynthetics Society, Indian Chapter, New Delhi, Delivered a lecture on application of geosynthetics. Case studies on rock wall protection system by using steel wire rope net; erosion control material produced with top and bottom layers with nets and filled with biodegradable mulching mat/coir GARMATTM; municipal solid waste and hazardous waste management by using geo textiles geo-membraine and geo nets; water resource management and canal ling; precast panel fencing; pavements and stabilisation; prefabricated vertical drains, band drains; river shore protection with steel and polymeric Gabions, Geotextile bags/tubes were discussed by him with reference to our country.

VK Patil, Scientist, Bombay Textile Research Association (BTRA), Mumbai handled a session on Geosynthetic Products, Applications and Advantages. BITRA is the Centre of Excellence for the Geo textiles. He displayed various Geosynthetic products from BITRA and briefed the participants on the technical characteristics that are necessary for specific applications. Drainage composite for wall protection, Geoforms & Geotubes, Road sector present scenario and opportunities for the Geosynthetics, erosion and flood control with Geosynthetics were topics of this session.

Dr Mahuya Ghosh, Scientist from Indian Jute Research Industries (IJIRA), Kolkatta is one of a resource person stated on the application of jute interface with Geosynthetics. She interacted with the audience on Geosynthetics in infrastructural development in Cites. The comparative analysis of root proof jute geotextiles and Polypropylene blended Geotextiles for road construction were made by her with various case studies

M Sudhakar, Sr General Manager, MaccaFerri Environmental Solutions, Hariyana, elaborated on the products and advantages in geosynthetics. The MaccaFerri is in the manufacture of geosynthetic products for more than two decades. Some of the company products like Graded Drainage filter, Drainage composites were displayed in the hall for the participants to understand. Apart from this some information and features of their products like Macdrain, Fin-drain, Mac-grid, Road mesh, Bio-mac (for erosion control-coconut coir fibre) and Bio-mat. He made interesting case studies on the following pavement stabilisation.

• Pavement stabilisation in Creek Kalatalav Sanesh Road, Bhavnagar
• Muck disposal From Rampur Hydroelectric Power Plant, Shimla
• Construction of New Airport at Pakyong, Sikkim
• Re wall on stone column – Adani-Munda and Trivandrum
• Canal lining in Haryana

Saurabhh Vyas, Head – Technical Services, TechFab (India), Gujarat delivered a lecture on Geosynthetic Products – Competitive Advantages with suitable case studies. The TechFab, is pioneer in the manufacture of geosynthetics. The speaker elaborated on the various certifications needed for authorising the products. He also elaborated the participants with various projects which were taken up by the company. It includes 2.6 million sq m (1,600 MT) nonwovens supplied for Geo
bags making under Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project in Assam and the Prefabricated vertical drain in Udaipur Agarthala.

He briefed the participants with the various difficulties that the company faced to find solutions
for the need in.

The final session was a SWOT analysis on geosynthetics. This session was convened by Dr KV Rao, Former HoD- Department of Civil Engineering, IIT, Delhi, M Venkataraman, President, International Geosynthetics Society, Indian Chapter, New Delhi, VK Patil, Scientist, BTRA – CoE, Mumbai, M Sudhakar, Sr General Manager, MaccaFerri, Hariyana and Saurabhh Vyas, Head – Technical Services, Tech Fab (India), Gujarat. The participants had an interactive session with the speakers.

Eighty five participants from Rural Development and Panchayatraj, Slum Clearance Board, Highways, Public works Department Town and Country planning, Tamilnadu Water and Drainage Board, Tamil Nadu Housing Board, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Builders Association of India and Budding entrepreneurs attended this programme. Munianathan, IAS, Director Department of Handlooms and Textiles,
M Govinda Rao IAS Dy. Commissioner, Chennai Corporation and Dr C Rameshkumar Director SVPITM were present on this occasion.

The programme ended with a vote of thanks by Mohanraj, Faculty Coordinator, SVPITM, Coimbatore.