Interview Insights:
Rail Analysis: Please share with us about yourself and how did you get started in this industry?
Shri Vikramjiet Roy: Being a first-generation entrepreneur with nearly three decades of experience in Industrial Products & Civil Engineering Solutions to Core Infrastructure & Environment Solutions, I have been one of the earliest proponents of geotextiles/ technical textiles in the country and have made a worthwhile contribution in this domain. My entrepreneurship journey started with Sargon Geosynthetics Ltd., which I led as the Managing Director for 4 years, growing and developing it from a newly launched venture to a formidable exponent of specialized civil engineering solutions using geosynthetics in India. My association with the Maccaferri Group started in 2006.
Since then, we have completed many noteworthy milestones and have always worked towards identifying, addressing, and resolving the specific needs of our customers. We have grown over 30 times in the last 10 years, thereby establishing Maccaferri as the undisputed industry leader in its space in India while also cementing technical leadership by enabling the recruitment, training, development, and nurturing of the brightest talents in the industry. Staying committed to a sustainable future has always been at the forefront of my leadership and decision-making approach.
Rail Analysis: Can you please tell us about your present product offerings for the Rail & Metro sector? Further, what are the initiatives Maccaferri has taken to support the development of railway & metro network in India?
Shri Vikramjiet Roy: Maccaferri has collaborated in various Railway projects in India, some of which include rockfall barrier installation at Southwestern Railway, Erosion control measures for Railway Embankments along Bhaupur-Khurja stretch as part of Dedicated Freight Corridor construction, HEA Panel, and Steelgrid® MO wire meshes for Rockfall Protection with Northeast Frontier Railways in Garo Hills and Meghalaya and in the 10 km railway track stretch at Gadarwara district in Madhya Pradesh, they successfully reduced the blanket thickness from 1m to 0.4m and many more
Among our various offerings, the highlighted and the most frequently used solutions provided by us in the Metro and Railway sector include MacGrid® EG (Biaxial polypropylene geogrid), Macdrain (geocompoiste drain), ParaLink (high strength geogrid), Geotextiles, High Energy Absorption (HEA) Panel, Steelgrid, Self-Drilling Anchors (SDA), Dynamic rockfall Barrier, and more.
Rail Analysis: What are the projects you are involved in presently? What are the company’s future plans and targets with respect to the Indian Railway and Metro market?
Shri Vikramjiet Roy: One of our latest projects is the Udhampur – Srinagar – Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, providing rail connectivity in parts of Kashmir. In this project, we collaborated with Konkan Railway Corporation and SRM contractors to construct a Flexible Hybrid Reinforced Soil Structure. It is a first-of-its-kind technique used in railway infrastructure development. We used various sustainable infrastructure techniques in this project, including re-use of tunnel muck, i.e., soil generated from tunnel construction operations, to reduce carbon emissions. We are working in number of packages of Eastern and Western DFCCIL packages providing MacDrain as replacement of hand packed boulders.
As for our future targets, we aim to contribute further to India’s railway and metro infrastructure by providing better, more cost-effective, and sustainable solutions. Our goal is to be a trusted partner to the stakeholders, fostering creativity, innovation, and adoption of alternative solutions to challenging civil engineering problems with sustainability at core.
Rail Analysis: There is a lot of focus now on curbing carbon emissions, ESG and Social Impact of the business and the CSR initiatives. Which types of measures are you adopting to improve the ecosystem and your contribution to the society?
Shri Vikramjiet Roy: Sustainable development is defined as growth that fulfills present needs without endangering the capacity of future generations to satiate their own. In other words, it is a systematic approach to economic development that strongly emphasises on preserving a good environment for present and future generations. From being mandatory, giving back to society has been ingrained in the Maccaferri culture since its inception. Maccaferri operates under the CSR domain by serving as a solution provider for enterprises and governments adopting alternative construction materials that reduce lifecycle carbon emissions. We recognise the significance of the Indian infrastructure sector and are committed to designing & developing innovative solutions that are focused on sustainability and environment preservation.
Maccaferri stood with the country in its fight against COVID through the “Count on Us” campaign in which a number of internal and external initiatives were extended to the people. The “Breath Easy” campaign provided oxygen concentrators to patients who were in need, and we carried out multiple vaccination drives for our employees and their families. We have been organising regular blood donation drives since 2009, under which 501 people, including our employees, have donated blood. Each month we also organise tree plantation activities at all our factories to contribute toward environmental protection and increasing green cove.
Rail Analysis: Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Shri Vikramjiet Roy: India has been at the receiving end of the growing climatic imbalance. The rising global temperatures in the country have led to severe heat waves, erratic monsoons, flash floods, tropical cyclones, and a compounding sea level rise. Immediate and effective steps need to be taken to contain greenhouse gas emissions. India is a developing nation and cannot backtrack on its developmental goals, but it can devise sustainable practices to manage the emissions. India needs to build a green economy with sustainability at the core of its developmental plans at a time when 75% of infrastructure by 2050 is yet to be built. One of the most effective ways to reduce construction-related emissions, is to use prefabricated components for construction, and recyclable/reusable building materials. India has vowed to be a net-zero emitter by 2070 to become a green economy and to reduce its carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030. Reducing the carbon footprint may be the fastest method of reaching net-zero carbon emissions.
Maccaferri has sustainability at the core of all its solutions and practices. We focus on sustainable development by using energy-efficient infrastructure to reduce its carbon footprints and make an impact on the environment. Our goals are aligned with the government’s long-term vision to reduce carbon intensity and become a net-zero emitter by 2070.
For more information, please visit: www.maccaferri.com
