The four-day 80th annual session of Indian Roads Congress(IRC) organised by Road and Construction Department(RCD), Bihar Government, at Samrat Ashok Convention Kendra culminated on Sunday with valedictory session followed by visit of delegates to important tourist and cultural heritage places of Bihar.
Addressing the valedictory session, Secretary General of IRC, SK Nirmal highlighted the outcome of technical session.
For the first time "Poster session and Photography exhibition" was held in annual session of IRC.
Based on theme "Road Safety" hundreds of posters and photographs were displayed which raised awareness among the visitors addressing the issues of road safety for traffic movement.
On December 19, professors, research scholars of engineering colleges including IITs, Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Noida and Delft University, Netherland presented their research work. Besides, Scientists and officers from Research and Development Organization and private stakeholders associated with highway engineering sector presented their study on different subjects related to civil construction and manufacturing industry. A talk on “Disaster problems in Bihar state- Solutions and way forward " was held in which suggestions of Prof Kapil Gupta, IIT Bombay to mitigate disaster was appreciated.
Highway Research Board meeting was held on December 20, 2019. Three papers published in IRC journals were presented.
Paper of Dr. Dharamveer Singh and Alok Bhowmic were appreciated. On the same day, considering recommendations of World – a workshop on 'Road Management Asset' was held in which
recommendations of Dr. V K Raina, a renowned Bridge Expert, was found valuable for bridge construction and rehabilitation.
On December 21, professional experts and engineers associated with Road and Development sector presented their research studies and papers published in IRC journal. On same day, Panel discussion on "Climate Resilient Road Construction" was held which raised environmental friendly project formulation and mitigation problems during construction particular of flyover in habitated areas. Considering worth of topics covered in panel discussion, IRC committee will consider to publish guideline for the same in upcoming future after going through analytical studies in pilot projects.
Road safety issue was prominently dealt in the technical sessions which lead to conclusion to formulate guideline for section of Safety Auditor.
Technical session concluded with experience and success story sharing technical know-how of state and central government departments and other stakeholders of road and bridge sector.
The 220th council meeting of IRC was held with selection of C P Joshi, Secretary of PWD Maharashtra, as new president of IRC and new delegation of the council. Out of 10 council members of IRC, three members were elected from Bihar.
On Sunday morning, delegates started post session tour to different tourists and heritage sites like Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Jahenabad and local technical site visits of Patna.
This tour was organized by IRC team in association with Bihar tourism to see historical and cultural sites across Rajgir, Nalanda, Bodh Gaya, Vaishali while other visited various sightseeing places in Patna and nearby places.
All the sub committees of local organizing committee of IRC were awarded with memento as appreciation of their effort for organizing successful annual session. Besides, all the companies participating in technical exhibition were given ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ by the Technical exhibition committee.
Feedback of few delegates regarding this session:
Chandani, Retired secretary of Maharashtra PWD, said, “Road safety and finding alternative solution is new idea. The findings of presented study that median tree plantation is source of road accident is really convincing which was not in light before.”
Another delegate, Shobha Khanna of Madhya Pradesh, said, “The idea of using waste material and locally available raw materials was something very useful and cost effective. IRC gave platform to share successful innovative engineering practices adopted in different organsisations that are being used in other developing countries too. It is beneficial for every engineering and construction industry to be a part of such event. ”
Prof Sanjeev Sinha of NIT Patna emphasized the importance of academia R&D indexing in IRC journals and Secretary general of IRC conveyed the ongoing process under IRC for academia indexing that will be visible in publications and coming journals.
Cultural programme was organized in the late evening at Bapu Sabhagar from 19th to 21st December. Folk music and dance of different states were showcased by the artists of East zone cultural centre under union ministry of Art and Cultural. On December 20th, renowned Indian playback singer Shaan performed live musical show at Bapu Sabhagar which jam-packed the auditorium and audience enjoyed programme till late night.
More than 2000 delegates of other states along with their family members and around 1000 local delegates participated in the event of IRC. Foreign delegates from Netherland, Sri Lanka and Australia also participated in the event.
One of the delegates suffered heart attack during his stay in Patna which was timely taken care by medical team of organizing committee and finally the delegate was sent back to his home after stabilization of health condition on recommendation of doctors. The 80th annual session culminated successfully.
