Representatives of the Federal Autonomous Institution “Russian Road Scientific-Research Institute” (FAI “ROSDORNII”), the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and the CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) of the Republic of India discussed the prospects for mutually beneficial scientific cooperation in the road transport industry. A business meeting of senior leadership of ROSDORNII, Russia, CSIR and CRRI India took place on May 24, 2023 at Moscow.
The CSIR and CRRI delegation was led by Dr. N. Kalaiselvi, Secretary, DSIR, Govt. of India and Director General, CSIR and Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Director, CSIR-CRRI respectively.
Mr. Vladimir Martinson, Deputy General Director ROSDORNII, delivered welcome speech on behalf of ROSDORNII, to welcome Indian delegation in Russian premier research institute at Moscow. In his welcome speech Mr. Martinson emphasize that “Russian-Indian relations are traditionally friendly. Ministries and Departments of both the countries are actively developing and maintaining working contacts, in mutually beneficial interest areas”. Mr. Martinson further compliments the Indian delegation, on success of India to achieve highest growth rate in the world for construction of new roads and bridge structures. He informed that the ROSDORNII Russia can make significant scientific contribution to build climate resilient, sustainable, intelligent transport system in India by sharing technological development and the results of research conducted by ROSDORNII.
Dr. N. Kalaiselvi also greeted the participants in the meeting, noting that Russia and India are brought together by the task of creating a safe, comfortable and efficient transport network. She spoke about the activities of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research and informed that “CSIR, India has 37 premier research laboratories, five of which are dealing civil construction and constriction safety aspects. These laboratories provide comprehensive scientific support to construction projects, from design to safe demolition. As part of the Highway Development Program, India is ambitious to reach the goal of constructing one hundred km. of roads every day”.
Prof. Manoranjan Parida, presented the CRRI’s main areas of expertise, such as testing of road construction materials, road performance evaluation, transport planning and modeling, monitoring and assessing the condition of roads and artificial structures, designing and implementing intelligent transport systems for urban areas, Operation and Maintenance of Smart Cities for sustainable development to enhance the road safety on Indian Road Network, developing highly efficient environmentally friendly technologies and materials for sustainable construction, advanced training programs for road industry specialists in the fields of traffic safety, geospatial technologies in the field of transport, etc.
Vladimir Martinson spoke about the ROSDORNII’s ongoing projects. Particularly about the National Project "Safe-Quality Roads" implementation and scientific support of federal and regional programs of the Russian Federation for the development of road activities. The National Project efficiency is inextricably linked with fostering the use of new technologies in road works to save construction resources, make roads more environmentally friendly and durable, and reduce construction time.
Discussing further on the regulatory and technical documents governing the road industry, Vladimir Martinson noted the fundamental role of the Technical Regulation "Safety of Roads" (TR TS 014/2011) of the Customs Union. The main technical requirements for roads are stipulated by documents on standardization (interstate standards, national standards, preliminary national standards, etc.).
Alexander Konorev, Head of the Department for Advanced Research and Testing Methods of ROSDORNII, spoke about the Wheel Load Simulator “CYCLOS”, commissioned by the Institute.
“CYCLOS carries out testing in a short period of time and allows us to make a prediction on operational properties of pavements in real conditions. Thanks to CYCLOS, we can determine the resistance of the entire road structure or asphalt concrete layers to the impact of full-scale operation loads”, the expert noted.
The CSIR-CRRI delegates identified the most promising areas for scientific cooperation. It comprises the use of alternate resources and new technologies for road construction and documents regulating this area.
Prof. Manoranjan Parida noted the use of construction wastes, in particular steel slag, in road construction in India. Major benefits of this technology are reduced road construction costs and negative environmental impact compared to cement-concrete pavement, and increased durability of roads.
ROSDORNII experts presented to the guests the Institution’s testing and research laboratory, its state-of-the-art equipments, and described how tests with a predetermined load and the influence of various factors typical for the real operating conditions on roads are carried out to determine the parameters for selected materials (rutting, abrasion by winter type tires, fatigue strength, frost resistance, etc.).
“At the Central Road Research Institute, we also test building and road construction materials, suitable for Indian climate conditions. We are very interested in Russia's experience in this area, and we would like to study the results of ROSDORNII's research in more detail,” emphasized by Prof. Manoranjan Parida.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. N. Kalaiselvi thanked all the participants and expressed confidence in the prospects for further cooperation: "The interaction of our Institutions will help to create conditions for the development of the road transport industry, primarily in terms of the deployment of innovative products for safe and sustainable road transport".
The outcome of the meeting was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on 25/05/2023 detailing the broad areas of scientific cooperation. The parties agreed to further identify promising areas of cooperation, exchange information’s on existing regulatory documents, the latest developments and tests, ongoing industry events for the bilateral participation.