_____ Report on National Conference on _____

Code of Practice for Horizontal Directional Drilling Technique

Suiting Indian Conditions

Based on the recommendations of the National Seminar, No-Dig India 2007 on 28th & 29th March 2007 at New Delhi, Indian Society for Trenchless Technology (IndSTT) has establish a working group to recommend the minimum standards and related criteria for various trenchless techniques suitable to Indian conditions for a transparent procurement process.

Several meetings of this working group have been conducted and based on the recommendations made IndSTT has compiled a set of provisions for safe and successful implementation of different Trenchless Techniques. Horizontal Directional Drilling is one of such technique where the code development work has been done and the first edition of the code has been prepared.

In order to release this Code of Practice and sensitize the stakeholders, a national conference on Code of Practice for Horizontal Directional Drilling Technique suiting Indian Conditions was organized jointly with DCI India Pvt. Ltd. on 24th ~ 25th August 2007 at New Kenilworth Hotel, Kolkata.

Further, to train professionals in Directional Drilling Tracking and other related matters, a Training Workshop was also organized during the National Conference. In this workshop professionals were trained on various aspects of tracking which included Introduction to Drilling, Bore Path Planning, Tracking Technique, Dealing with Interference, Data logging, Wire Line Drilling, & Hands-on Training. Upon conclusion of the course, a test was conducted and the trainees were awarded certificates.

Next day the Code of Practice was released by Dr. Manu Bhai N Patel, the respected Lifetime achiever and recipient of Shri R.N. Mathur Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award 2007 through Video Conferencing between Mumbai and Kolkata. Dr. Patel could not join the Conference due to his indifferent health. The day started with the Key Note Address Requirement of Trenchless Technology Techniques in JnNURM Project, delivered by Mr. N.B. Basu, Principal Chief Engineer Kolkata Municipal Corporation, followed by the release of Code of Practice.

After the release two presentations on Establishment of Standards & Specifications of Trenchless Technology Techniques  Suiting Indian Conditions, and Advanced Tracking Systems were made. The day later saw two workshops covering topics like Code of Practice for Horizontal Directional Drilling Suiting Indian Conditions, and Schedule of Rates for Trenchless Techniques. The day will ended with Stakeholders Dialogue to chart the future course of actions.

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Major recommendations from the conference were:

1. A mechanism for evaluating, testing and certifying the HDD machine capacities to be evolved. A sub-group for this purpose is being established and nominations are under invitation.

2. A mechanism to test and certify the capabilities of the machine operations to evolved. Again a sub-group for this purpose is under establishment.

3. A mechanism to derive the project costing through standard rate analysis systems to be evolved. Similarly another sub-group is under establishment.

Participation in these sub-groups open to IndSTT members and invited stakeholders. For invitations, kindly communicate to IndSTT Secretariat.

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