Geo-synthetics technology could be mandated for filtration application.

- Tiru Kulkarni, President - Geosynthetics Head, Garware Technical Fibers Limited.

A leading player in technical textiles, Garware Technical Fibres Ltd is known for its applied innovation in the field of railways, landmark, infrastructure, geosynthetics, sports, defense, fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, agriculture and coated fabrics. GTFL software like Geo5, Talren, MSEW, ReSSA, Reslope, GeoCoPS, FoSSA, etc. to design solutions in area like roads, railways, environmental and waste management, coastal and water front structures, etc are accepted internationally. “The scope for geo-synthetic technology theoretically stands to go up by 300% - 400% from the current market size of Rs 1500 crore, in the next few years,” states Tiru Kulkharni, President - Geosynthetics Head, Garware Technical Fibers Limited. Excerpts from the interview…

Brief us on the core strength and competencies of Garware Technical Fibres Ltd, especially in the geosynthetics for infrastructure projects?

The geo-synthetics division of Garware Technical Fibres offers end to end solutions for infrastructure projects using innovative geo-synthetic technologies. These solutions encompass the entire supply chain from design to supply and execution. In short Garware positions itself as a specialized EPC player in this segment. In terms of sectors of involvement, Garware's involvement is in highways, railways, industrial landfills, hazardous industrial waste lining, rivers and coastal protection. As you can see, each of these sectors is a specialized field of study in itself. The fact that GTFL is able to operate across all sectors makes it ideally positioned to solve stabilization and erosion problems for its clients both in land and water.

How do you assess the potential for GTFL solutions from the massive drive of transforming the Indian railways / and construction of metros?

The central government has announced a major investment of Rs 110 L crores from 2020 to 2025, in infrastructure, through the NIP (National Infrastructure Pipeline). A sizeable portion of this investment, around Rs 13.67 L crores has been dedicated to improving the existing railway infrastructure, both through doubling and tripling of railway lines as well as through metro construction. All this infrastructure construction is bound to pass through rocky terrain or soft ground conditions, and this is where geo-synthetic solutions work better than traditional ones.

Tell us the solutions offered for railway / and metro construction projects? What is the appreciation level from the project owners and executing agencies in using geosynthetics?

Garware offers solutions in slope stabilization, rock fall protection as well as embankment stabilization for railway lines on soft soils in these areas. These solutions save the client both time and money as compared to the traditional alternatives. Besides, geo-synthetic products are factory manufactured and have more consistent properties as compared to normal materials available on site like sand and aggregates. They are also easy to install and maintain. These advantages are not well understood by all the clients even today due to a general lack of information and expertise, but, having tried geo-synthetic solutions once most clients appreciate the value add and return to these solutions whenever they encounter similar problems on their sites in future.

What do you think the major challenges in wider acceptance and implementation of such solutions? 

The major challenge in wider acceptance of geo-synthetic technology in India is penetration. Even today the practicing engineers are not made well aware of the uses of geo-synthetics. The penetration level of geo-synthetic technology in India today is around 0.5% of the value of infrastructure projects whereas even in China this value stands at around 4% - 5% of the value of infrastructure projects taken up. This means that there is a lot of head room in India for this technology to catch up.

What are your suggestions to iron out those issues?

As regards suggestions to iron out these issues, well, it has to do with increasing awareness of this technology through seminars, training sessions and codal provisions. All these are being implemented by the government as well as other central and state agencies, and there has been a lot of change generated in the past few years with wider acceptance. Mandating geo-synthetic technology for certain applications where value add vis a vis traditional solutions is clear, will also help. For example, geo-synthetics could be mandated for filtration application.

How have you been able to leverage the advantages of various disruptive and communication technologies in your solutions?

It should be understood that geo-synthetics by itself is a disruptive technology as it replaces traditional methods and is more economical, user friendly and eco-friendly. In terms of leveraging communication technologies in our solutions, we have started using drones to survey the land as well as to get a bird's eye view during construction, for some sites. Besides, we are working on equipping our materials and systems to provide real time information on potential disasters. This is a work in progress with our R&D Department and I would not like to comment any further.

Currently which application segment is driving the demand for geosynthetic solutions?

Currently, roads, railways and landfill application segments are driving the demand for geo-synthetics in the industry.

Post pandemic what are the application challenges that you are faced with and how do you address those issues?

This is a very pertinent question. The pandemic forced us to reevaluate how we carry on our work at sites. In our case, we were lucky that most of our sites were either critical (i.e.) the Client could not stop or were re-started quickly. For example, the railways sector started working from April onwards. Although passenger trains were stopped, freight trains continued and construction work continued. Therefore, we were forced to adapt very quickly and devised strict SOPs on site that adhered to government guidelines. This is being monitored on a daily basis even now.

What is your outlook for the future potential for geosynthetic solution for roads and highways?

For roads, the investment proposed by the central government is even higher at Rs 20.33 L crore. Therefore, between roads and railways, the share of investment is > 30%. Moreover, Indian geo-synthetic manufacturers are increasing their export base as well due to proximity of raw material and low costs. Indian products are increasingly being accepted even in developed markets like Europe and USA. With the current efforts of the central government and the ministry of textiles to increase the consumption of geo-synthetics in infrastructure to world standards, the scope for geo-synthetic technology theoretically stands to go up by 300% - 400% from the current market size of Rs 1500 crore, in the next few years.

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