In line with the Modi government’s National Skill Development Program, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) is organizing training programmes for the students of civil engineering at the Geo Technical investigation lab, which is set up by Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in the city of Surat, Gujarat, for Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project.
The laboratory is considered as Asia’s biggest Geotechnical Laboratory and has generated employment for an about 900 (500 at field and 400 at laboratories) persons including Engineers, Technician and skilled laborers. This lab is equipped with the state of the art investigation equipment. The facility can conduct 3500 tests per day through 20 geotechnical engineers and 188 lab technicians.
During the training, the students are familiarized with the instruments being used for various geotechnical investigations.Besides lectures, field tests like Plate Load test, Pile load test to determine the soil characteristics through laboratory testing are also demonstrated. First batch of 35 students from Sardar Vallabh Bhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) Surat have already received training in this facility.
The MAHSR project has also given a boost to the local Geotech investigation setup in upgrading their old equipment. About 15 Laboratories at Valsad, Surat, Vadodara, Anand and Ahmedabad have upgraded their infrastructure to comply international standards required for the project. Fully Automatic and Semi-Automatic ground testing machines have been deployed at project sites.
