“No more lost opportunities”
India is one of today’s emerging trenchless markets. The main driver of trenchless applications is Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), under which various municipal bodies have identified projects in the sectors of water supply, sewerage and drainage to the value of US$23 billion. Collectively, these projects are capable of employing most of the trenchless techniques conceived to date.
Though projects under JnNURM are generally based in dense urban areas where conventional trenching is made difficult, system inadequacies are forcing project owners to opt for these very methods. This would be a great loss to the global trenchless sector and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Few of the major issues relate to a lack of skilled personnel, technology, materials or equipment providers. And the proper standards and specifications are in place for a transparent and harmonized procurement process. But it’s not happening and unless corrected soon, the main loser in the current situation is going to be the trenchless sector, as project owners consider more and more installations using conventional trenching.
With the support of international stakeholders, IndSTT is mitigating the negative effects of these activities, such as the development of codes for various techniques suiting Indian Conditions, human resource development at various levels, providing technical inputs to different stakeholders through publications, events and studies, and inviting others to join this major promotional drive.”
I have written the above text as the leader piece for the next issues of World Tunneling/Trenchless World magazine under invitation. It is one of the major international Trenchless Magazine being published and circulated from UK. Invitation to IndSTT to write the leader piece symbolizes the growing significance of Indian Trenchless markets for the International Trenchless Community and the its recognition as one of the entry points for the Indian Trenchless business.
The leader piece presents the current situation of Indian Trenchless opportunities. At one end there is this exploding demand and at the other is the Global Trenchless Fraternity which is looking at Indian Markets. IndSTT is acting as the entry gate as can be seen from the website visit data collected. It is our proud privilege to inform you that Oct 07 saw one of the highest website hits with the maximum recorded page loads being 254 on 9th Oct 07. For your information we are giving the visitor activities of the last three months in this issue, and invite the reader to also visit to know about many of the activities of IndSTT.
Opportunities in Trenchless are on an upswing as, in addition to JnNURM another government scheme, Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) is requiring the use of Trenchless in Indian cities. In addition, one of the recent moves initiated by the Prime Minister’s Office of revamping the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) is again going to accelerate the application of Trenchless Pipe Rehabilitation and Renewal Techniques in the nation. Under this initiative Government has decided to stop the sewage flow into rivers by 2011-12. Enormity of the plan can be understood if we relate figures to the fact. For the uninitiated, the estimated quantity of national annual sewage load is approximately 80,000 million litres a day (mld) against a cumulative treatment capacity of only 5,900 mld, the quantity of untreated sewage can be anybody’s guess. This type of demand is naturally going to waste water pipelines through the generating areas. These predominantly are densely congested regions, leading to substantial demand of Trenchless as no other working system can deliver the result in this time frame. Are we prepared? Is the Indian Trenchless Industry fully geared up to take such mammoth challenge alone? If not, then are we open to the international stakeholders joining us? As the stakeholder of the sector, one needs to ponder over these points and work accordingly. IndSTT is inviting one and all to come and join the movement of nation building.
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