Road Construction, Safety and Maintenance…

Trans Metalite India Ltd, a Metalite Group Company, has entered into a joint venture with Hitex InternationalUK for manufacturing of High Friction Surfacing, Cycle Track Materials, Retro Reflective Markings and Crack Sealing Compounds. The two companies have set-up a totally automatic manufacturing plant at Bawal in Haryana, to address the challenges of road safety, markings, repair and maintenance in India with a view to developing country specific solutions. The production is now in full flow. The materials, mobile equipment and the process have been accredited by BBA UK, and approved by CRRIIndia. The joint-venture is spearheaded by Asavari Jalan, Group Executive Director.

The production is now in full flow. The materials, mobile equipment and the process have been accredited by BBA UK, and approved by CRRI-India. The joint-venture is spearheaded by Asavari Jalan, Group Executive Director.The products increase the effective serviceable life of the existing pavement by about 3-4 years, resulting in savings for concessionaires and the exchequer. This is a single vehicle operation, so inconvenience to road users is minimal and the traffic is opened very fast. The anti skid treatment for sudden braking zones, high stress areas, sharp turning, curves and flyovers reduces the braking distance by about 30%, and drastically reduces the wear and tear of wearing course at high stress zones, in addition of greatly reducing the possibility of accidents at such spots.

Finn Goff, Group Commercial Director, Hitex International Group said that it was October 2013 when he first visited India and in the preceding two years that his company gained invaluable knowledge regarding the unique and often complex difficulties facing the Indian infrastructure network.

“Very early it became apparent that the greatest chance of success lay in developing an Indian solution to an Indian problem. Forcing a product or system of working from Europe into the Indian market and infrastructure network was doomed to fail. To that end we sought a partner here in India that could enable this to happen and were very lucky to begin working with Trans Metalite India.”

Vikas Jalan, Managing Director, Trans Metalite India Limited said, “In line with the vision of our Founder Vishwambhar Jalan, Metalite took a decision about a couple of decades back to introduce new technologies into the country, which would help mankind, and through sustainable development contribute to reducing the carbon footprint as well. At the time when there was massive construction initiated in the roads and highway sector, we decided to get new processes, equipment and materials to enhance the effective life of the road surface with minimal intervention, thus reducing the lifecycle cost substantially.”

The earlier technology tie up for Trans Metalite India is for an Infra-Red Recycling Pothole and Undulation Patching from M/s.Nuphalt, UK which has been successfully working on Delhi-NCR roads since last five years and in Jaipur for about two years. It forms a thermal monolithic bond between the existing asphalt (which is recycled) and the fresh asphalt (only the missing material is added), resulting in a permanent seamless patch(without any bump). It’s a single vehicle operation and the entire process takes about 15-20 minutes from infrared preheating to final compaction, and very soon thereafter the traffic is also opened, resulting in minimal traffic disruption. If the potholes and undulations are arrested at the right time with this process, then the need for relay or overlay can be delayed by about 2-3 years resulting in huge savings for the roads owning agencies/ concessionaires and also saves road users of inconvenience.

Riding on these initial successes, Metalite Group has a target to have atleast 500 machines each spread all over the country within a period of 2 years.

Metalite is the exclusive business associate for FORTA-FI High tensile strength synthetic fibre reinforcement for asphalt pavements, from M/s Forta-Fi Corporation of USA. By adding this fibre in a very tiny quantity of only half a kg per MT of asphalt, either the wearing surface life can be increased by almost 50% or the thickness of this top layer can be reduced by about 30-35% and still getting the same life.

Metalite is also exclusive distributors for Puncture-free Tyre Sealants manufactured by The OKO Group, UK, specially for construction and off-road vehicles to avoid accidents, reduce the down time, etc.