The global challenge of managing innovation—and the risks that come with it—galvanized a record crowd of international engineers meeting in New Delhi, India, last month, as they struggle to raise the profession’s image worldwide and tackle the planet’s growing problems. Photo: Neelam Mathews International design-firms group FIDIC reports a record attendance at its conference last month in New Delhi. “In order for us to be innovative, it is time for our profession to be accorded higher standards so we’re not looked at as a commodity to be bought at the lowest price,” Gregs Thomopulos, president of the International Federation of
A pedestrian bridge under construction collapsed Sept. 21 near Delhi, India's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium�the site of the Commonwealth Games scheduled to begin Oct 2. Twenty-seven workers with Chandigarh-based PNR Infra. were injured, some after jumping off the collapsing span. Some of the laborers were hurt jumping from the structure as it came down. The $2.3-million steel arch-supported footbridge was 90 meters long and about 1 m wide. The bridge was being constructed by the north Indian city. Government agency Rakesh Mishra, Public Works Dept. engineer-in-chief, says it appears the ramp seat was not capable of carrying the slab weight. “The
With little time remaining before the Oct. 4 start of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, the sporting event’s already-escalated $1.6-billion construction project is straining to reach the finish line. Teams from more than 60 U.K.-linked nations are set to arrive next month to test out venues, occupy new sports villages and use upgraded infrastructure. But stadium roofs are leaking, and work on most of the 17 new and rehabbed arenas and other projects is months behind schedule and has questionable procurement arrangements, officials say. Unique stadium-roof designs at Delhi’s Commonwealth Games project site have challenged Indian builders to
Marking the beginning of what India hopes will be an ongoing stream of public-private partnership deals, a consortium of Australia’s Leighton, the U.K.’s Balfour Beatty, France’s Vinci and the Hindustan Construction Co. submitted bids this month for the $1.2-billion concessionaire contract to build a 570-kilometer highway from Rajasthan to Gujarat. This road is the first of nine megaprojects conceived by the National Highways Authority of India. India has set a target for constructing 35,000 km of highways in the next five years under the National Highways Development Program. Out of the $60-billion investment, $40 billion is to come from the
Construction has begun on India’s strategic 8.8-kilometer-long, $363-million Rohtang Tunnel. Built at an altitude higher than 3,000 meters in the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas, it will provide an all-weather road link across the snow-capped Rohtang Pass. The tunnel will provide year-round road access to the remote regions of Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi Valley in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Conceived in 1983 and faced with many procedural delays, it is now being constructed by the Border Roads Organization under the Ministry of Defense. BRO awarded the project to a joint venture led by Austria’s Strabag A.G., Vienna, with
The first phase of the $90-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), a collaboration between India and Japan, is expected to begin late this year and be completed in 2018, say officials. The project to build a 150-kilometer corridor on either side of the 1,483-km freight rail line planned between Delhi and Mumbai was to have started in 2008. The project incorporates nine mega-industrial zones of about 200 to 250 sq. km, a high- speed freight line, three ports, six airports, a six-lane intersection-free expressway and a 4,000-megawatt powerplant. It will develop 24 locations into high-tech residential and industrial hubs, according to
Following the crash of an Air India Express plane in Mangalore on May 22, a report by the civil aviation ministry has identified 11 critical runways for extension. An inquiry is under way to verify the cause of the crash in Mangalore. Many have questioned whether the design of the 2,450-meter-long, 45-m-wide tabletop runway bracketed by 60-m-long, designated fore-and-aft Runway End Safety Areas could have contributed to the accident. Ravines at both ends of the runway drop sharply, down to 80 m. The aircraft overshot the runway during landing and toppled into a ravine, killing 158 people. The International Federation
India’s goal to achieve 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022 is proving to be a challenge as the industry awaits tweaks to a draft policy that will determine the tariff and allow the country to import photovoltaic cells—a technology that is not established in the country. But the road bumps haven’t stopped the development of some solar facilities in the country. The grid is underpowered, but PV sector is gaining turf. While the country currently has almost no grid-connected solar power, a recent McKinsey& Co. survey ranks India as the most attractive destination in the world for solar PV
India plans to build 15, 600 kilometers of expressways by 2022 at a cost of more than $100 billion, and the concrete industry needs to be prepared for increasing demand, says the country’s transport minister. Starting in April, India’s daily average construction rate of 9 km of roads may increase to 20 km, says Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath. Mumbai-Pune Expressway is one of few India roads with some concrete paving Nath spoke at the National Seminar on Concrete Highway Projects, held in New Delhi last month, at which sponsors emphasized sustainability and quality. According to Sumit Banerjee,
The Indian government is considering adopting a new rating system for all new planned government and public-sector buildings. The Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA), developed by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Dehli, was first introduced in mid-2008 as a way to rate buildings’ environmental performance in a variety of climates. It rates buildings on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest performance rating. GRIHA has been developed for all types of buildings in different climatic zones of the country, said Deepak Gupta, secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy