The geo-textiles expertise of the Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association (ATIRA) has been sought by north-eastern Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim.

The public works departments (PWDs) of these states have tied up with ATIRA for road construction projects that are to be carried out in consultation with the Indian Road Congress (IRC) in Guwahati, Shillong and in parts of Sikkim.

The Centre of Excellence (CoE) in technical textiles, set up by ATIRA, has developed an expertise in geo-synthetic sheets and geo-grids, which are used in road construction.

ATIRA is also providing expert advice for a road building project in Bhavanagar that is being constructed in collaboration with the Government of Gujarat, which has issued renewed guidelines for use of advanced geo-textiles for the project.

Besides CoE, ATIRA campus houses a geo-textiles testing and certification laboratory, the first such facility to be set up in Asia. It has been established in collaboration with the German lab Geoscope.

The CoE, set up with an investment of Rs. 2 billion, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government to establish another CoE in composites.

The COE has also entered into MoUs with Bremen University of Germany, National Composite Centre, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, and Karl Sruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.

The MoU with Bremen University is for initiating certificate courses and training programmes in composites, while that with Karl Sruhe Institute of Technology is for development of new technologies in composites.

The MoU with National Composite Centre is for developing a testing, standardization and R&D centre for composites, which would be the first such centre in the country.