Welcome to this special issue of Civil Engineering dedicated to projects in India. It highlights how the world’s sixth largest economy is investing heavily in national and local infrastructure to meet its ever-growing social and economic needs while also considering the wider issues of sustainability.
United Nations sustainable development goal 6 on universal access to water and sanitation is particularly relevant to India. Hay et al. (2021) start this issue by reporting on a project undertaken in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh to introduce consistent collection, analysis and sharing processes for water resources and demand data. They show the power of engagement with local communities, not only to get ‘buy-in’ to schemes but also to capture existing knowledge and good practice.
Transport can also play a key role in achieving sustainability. Sharma and Narayan (2021) explain how India is trying to reverse the modal shift of freight from rail to road over the past 70 years by building 3300 km of dedicated freight railways. This major programme of works also highlights the significance that civil engineers can have in enabling carbon dioxide reduction and stimulating the local and national economy.
We then have three papers on urban metros, which India has long recognised as essential to improving city transport as well as reducing congestion and pollution at street level. Dewanjee et al. (2021) discuss the concept design and optimisation of Esplanade station currently under construction on Kolkata’s new Line 2 metro; Killada and Gottumukkala (2021) report on the public-private partnership that delivered the recently completed Hyderabad metro; and Killada et al. (2021) describe the design and construction of Mumbai metro’s new Line 3. These are all fascinating and complex projects built both under and over congested urban environments.
The infrastructure theme then takes to the air with the paper by Chikatamarla and Chandramouli (2021) on doubling the capacity of Kempegowda International airport in Bengaluru in response to ever-rising demand. Of particular interest is the approach to sustainability, with rainwater harvesting, raising awareness of the use of plastics, relocation of trees during construction, green walls and sustainable runway lighting.
Maritime infrastructure is vital too to India’s economy and security. Davies and Mittal (2021) report on the construction of a massive new aircraft carrier dry dock in Mumbai, which was further complicated by having to be built around the remains of a part- built dry dock which failed 19 years earlier. The necessary forensic investigation into the previous failure demonstrates the importance of sharing lessons learnt on all projects – whether successful or not – through journals such as Civil Engineering.
Our final paper by Ghosal and Ghosh (2021) looks at how India is now taking steps to preserve its built-environment heritage through listing and restoring older buildings. As a case study it describes the restoration of two late-nineteenth-century residential buildings in Kolkata, which for much of the twentieth century served as the headquarters for Avery India, using traditional building methods.
We hope you enjoy the papers in this special issue and we are grateful to the authors for sharing their experiences with us. If you wish to write about your own work, please refer to the ICE Virtual Library. This provides details on how to publish with us as well as access to all newly accepted papers ‘ahead of print’.
