Potholes to become history breakthrough by Zydex

Vadodara-based Zydex Industries has developed a new technology in road construction that enables roads to resist cracking under heavy traffic loads and cyclic weather variations. The speciality chemicals company has been at the forefront of R&D and implementation of new technologies to build stronger and moisture-resistant roads with superior fatigue response.


Most of the road infrastructure is made of soil, sand, aggregates, bitumen, and cement wherein only bitumen is water resistant. This leads roads to deteriorate and lose strength with wet and dry cycles. Zydex has addressed this by increasing strength, improving flexibility (nano-polymers), and manufacturing super bonders for bitumen for flexible pavements.

The first set of technology by Zydex makes aggregates waterproof thus forming a skin-like layer that is water-resistant. This eliminates potholes and ravelling. The second set of technology uses silane and nano-polymer, which, when combined with a small amount of cement, can make the soil GSB mixes water-resistant and strong, yet flexible. Zydex has also introduced a full range of cement admixtures to address the reduced water requirement, thereby improving density of the cement concrete and at the same time making it more flexible to control, and reduce cracking to the extent of 90% for building the next generation of concrete roads.

Dr. Ajay Ranka, CMD, Zydex Industries, said, “Engineers around the world are keenly looking to adopt technologies that can help realize perpetual pavements at an economical cost. Achieving such an ambitious goal requires reimagining many of the basic facets of how roads have been built over the last 50 years and what the main cause of their failure has been. We, at Zydex Industries, are nurturing a vision to develop ‘Highway like Roads’ at rural and urban levels. Along with highway construction, our unique soil stabilization technology has been adopted by NRIDA, MORD for PMGSY and MMGSY in many states (from Kargil to North East) since 2015 with 1000 kms done till March 2022.

Zydex silane nanotechnology-based product Zycotherm has quickly become the top choice of all the major contractors due to its anti-strip property and enhanced resistance to moisture damage. Also, our Terrasil ZycoBond combo with cement has reduced the aggregate requirement in the base layers by 60% on an average, with better performance. We continue to prioritize developing new and more effective technology to build high-quality road networks across the country.”

Roads play a vital role in economic development of a country. As per government data, the pace of annual construction of four, six and eight lane national highways (NHs) has increased by more than 300% during the past 7 years. India has the second largest road network in the world with a length of over 6.2 mn kilometres with rural roads constituting 71.4% of the total road network as of March 2019 data. Therefore, building water- and fatigue- resistant roads is imperative for improving their long-term durability, reducing maintenance cost, and developing a formidable infrastructure at rural, urban and national levels.

Established in 1997, Zydex is a specialty chemicals company offering eco-friendly and sustainable technologies for agriculture, pavement and construction industries, paints and textile businesses. The company’s innovative technologies have been recognized for their contribution towards sustainability and are accepted globally. It has risen to become a global player with footprints in over 40 countries and has been growing at a CAGR of 15-20 % in the last five years.