Interview with Mr. Anant Kanoi

With expansion of infrastructure and related fields on the demand side and indigenous manufacturing on the supply side, I expect a reasonable growth of geosynthetics industry in India. Compared to the huge investments in infrastructure, the quantum of use of geosynthetics in India is very low compared to other countries.

At present, the major markets for our products are highways, airports, ports, coastal and riverbank protection, waste management, railways. Major applications of our products are in reinforced soil retaining walls, bituminous overlay reinforcement, gabion retaining walls, revetments for coastal and riverbank protection, flood control, solid waste landfill lining systems, ground improvement etc.

Some of the missing links are – large number of civil engineers still are not very familiar with these products; very limited coverage of geosynthetics by most Indian standards, codes of practice and specifications; lack of IS standards for geosynthetic products; lack of good testing facilities in India; very limited funding for research and development etc. Government policies should address these weaknesses and frame appropriate policies.

I am very happy and proud to say that Techfab India Industries Ltd., a totally Indian company, in a very short span of about seven years has been able to manufacture a very wide range of world class geosynthetics in India with indigenous expertise. Today our products are exported & accepted all over the world. Therefore, we do have great strengths.

I hope that the pace of investments in the infrastructure, which is the prime driver for the growth of geosynthetics industry, would continue. We also look forward to specific measures to strengthen the application and use of indigenous geosynthetics manufactured products in Indian infrastructure projects.