Considering the importance of geotextiles in the PM Gati Shakti scheme and its enormous growth opportunities, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indian ministry of textiles, under the flagship scheme National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM), are organising Geotex, a one-day national conference on geotextiles—PM Gati Shakti Scheme: Leveraging growth opportunity for Geotextiles—on Friday, March 24, 2023, at Shangri-La Eros Hotel in New Delhi.

Piyush Goyal, minister of commerce and industry, textiles and consumer affairs and food and public distribution, government of India, has been invited as the chief guest for the conference. Minister Goyal and secretaries of ministries under PM Gati Shakti scheme will be conducting a special session at the conference.

The conference will focus on understanding the window of opportunities for usage of geotextiles in PM Gati Shakti Scheme, the latest development in geotextiles, its ongoing research and innovation from academia, institutional buying, and mandatory usage of geotextiles across all infrastructure projects in India. Various user ministries will also come on board to discuss and deliberate upon the evolving scenario in geotextiles manufacturing in India, and exchange ideas and global views on the future growth and development of the sector, the organisers said.

The conference will begin with an inaugural session with Rachna Shah, secretary, ministry of textiles, government of India. The organisers will hold technical sessions on topics such as Geosynthetic products as alternative construction material; Aligning research and innovation towards convergence of growth in geotextiles – Scientist/Academia Perspective; Spotlight session on catalysing GeM portal - Uprooting opportunities through institutional buying; Catapulting geotextiles through PM Gati Shakti Ecosystem to strengthen the landforms which leads to improvement performance efficiency; Geosynthetic in sustainable development of multi-modal infrastructure (roads and railways); Durability and long-term performance of geosynthetics in waterways; and Opportunities for jute geotextiles across infrastructure projects.

A valedictory session with Darshana Vikram Jardosh, minister of state for textiles and railways, will be held at the end of the conference.