Workshop brings together country’s top civil engg minds at NITK

Mangaluru: The Sustainable Construction and Building Materials (SCBM) Laboratory, department of civil engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) Surathkal, hosted a two-day collaborative workshop and capacity building programme on 'Durability and Sustainability of Concrete' from Thursday. The event brings together 11 resource persons from eight leading engineering institutions in India to strengthen research and practice around long-lasting, low-impact concrete.

The inaugural function was held at the campus and was presided over by Subhash Chandra Yaragal, deputy director, NITK Surathkal. LP Singh, director general, National Council of Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM), attended as chief guest and spoke on national priorities for durable and sustainable concrete research. Shashank Bishnoi, deputy director, IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus, served as guest of honour.

The workshop targets a persistent concern in India’s construction sector: premature degradation of concrete infrastructure, leading to repeated repairs, reconstruction, and avoidable expenditure. Technical sessions cover durability mechanisms, sustainable and low-carbon binders, service life prediction and performance-based design, corrosion and degradation in reinforced concrete, circular economy approaches, 3D concrete printing, and the use of industrial byproducts.

Faculty experts from IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Roorkee, IIT Jodhpur, and Thapar University Patiala are participating, along with the NCCBM director general. The event is supported by the L&T-sponsored MTech (CMT) programme project of NITK, NCCBM, and UltraTech Cement, and is coordinated by B B Das with Rajasekaran C as co-coordinator.

Organised in association with IIT Delhi, NCCBM, and IIT Madras, the programme also serves as a pre-conference event for the International Congress on Chemistry of Cement (ICCC 2027) in New Delhi, linking Indian researchers to a global forum.