December 09, 2024; Kolkata:

ICAR-National Institute of Natural Fibre Engineering Technology, Kolkata organized one day National Workshop on “Development of Building Materials utilizing Agricultural Biomass” under Consortium Research Platform on Natural Fibres here today.

Dr. D. P. Ray, Head, CB&P Division & PI of CRP-07 project briefed the gathering about the workshop programme and about the project achievements.  

Dr. D. B. Shakyawar, Director, NINFET welcomed all and highlighted the institute developed technologies ready for commercialization viz; retting & grading technology, Extractor & testing equipments and Process & Products technologies.

Dr. K. Narsaiah, ADG (PE), ICAR, chief guest of the programme congratulated and appreciated the workdone by the whole project teams. He suggested to make a strategy and solution plan for developing engineered materials to replace sand or coarse aggregates which will be sustainable in nature.

Dr. U.K. Neogi, Pro-Chancellor, Lingaya’s Vigyapith, Haryana graced the programme as Guest of Honour and briefed about how bricks, concrete can be made using naturally available resources and other waste byproducts. He also emphasized on future collaboration work with NINFET.

Dr. A.S.M. Raja, Nodal Officer, CRP on Natural Fibres discussed about the achievement and various challenges for fulfilling the projects

There were three technical presentation during the technical session presented by Dr. D.P. Ray, PI of CRP-07, Prof. Ranjan Rakesh, Department of Structural Engineering, IIT, Roorkee and Prof. B.V.V. Reddy, Former Professor of IISc, Bengaluru in the Department of Civil Engineering and Centre for Sustainable Technology. The technical session was chaired by Dr. S.K. Das, Professor, Jadavapur University.

The technical session was followed by presentations from Kingstone college. It was followed by a panel discussion chaired by Prof. Debasis Dev, Professor, Jadavpur University. Dr. S. Mann, Head, AS&EC Division, ICAR-CIPHET, Ludhiana, Dr. S. Gangil, Head, AE&P Division, ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal, Dr. A. Das, Professor, Jadavpur University, Dr. A. Shuily, Prof. Jadavpur University and Dr. D. B. Shakyawar, Director, NINFET were the expert panelists for the programme.

Sixty-seven (67) participants attended the programme including Professors, scientist, expert and  Students  from Jadavpur University, Kingstone University, ICAR-CIPHET and ICAR-NINFET have attended the programme alongwith online participants. The programme ended with a formal vote of thanks from Dr. Manisha Jagadale, Scientist and Co-PI of CRP-07 Project.

Dr. D.P.Ray, Head, Chemical & Biochemical Processing Division, ICAR NINFET coordinated the Workshop.

(Source: ICAR-National Institute of Natural Fibre Engineering and Technology, Kolkata)