India will soon witness the inauguration of its biggest expressway project - the Samruddhi Mahamarg Expressway, officially known as Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg. The Expressway will link Mumbai, the financial capital of India, to Nagpur, the major hub of the Vidarbha Region, and reduce the commute time from 14-15 hours to 8-9 hours. It is considered to be the largest and the most ambitious road project in Maharashtra, till date.
In view of the project’s enormity (spanning 701 km), it required around 43.3 lakh tons of sand. CDE Asia, being the market leader in the wet processing equipment industry and serving a constellation of 24 countries in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia, came to give its aid to this critical project.
During its 16 years of existence, the company has developed a sand production capacity of 56 million tons per annum with its machines’ operating time of 3000 hours each year. It has created a dominance in the M-sand market with 5% of total sand capacity in India, making it one of the largest contributors to the sand industry whose volume requirement stands at 1 billion tons per annum - thus reducing the consumption of river sand in India.
The Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway passes through 10 districts: Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Aurangabad, Jalna, Ahmednagar, Nashik, and Thane, covering 701 km and 16 packages. The project consists of over 50 flyovers, 24 plus interchanges, more than 5 tunnels, over 400 vehicular and 300 pedestrian underpasses. Almost 45% of the Expressway has been constructed with the sand produced by the CDE Asia plants.
As on date, a total of 13 plants have already been commissioned by CDE Asia for this project, involving most of the frontline contractors of the construction industry. They include Afcons Infrastructure, Dilip Buildcon, NCC Limited, Navyuga Engineering Company, Raj Infrastructure Development (India), and Roadway Solutions India Infra (sub-contractor for Reliance Infra).
Availability of river sand being a major issue in Maharashtra, the construction of this Expressway by MSRDC (Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation) demanded a continuous supply of IS 383 grade M-Sand. This is when CDE Asia flung into action with the goal of providing comprehensive sand solutions and a sustainable and scalable resource of sand for the project. In need of an economical, ecologically sound, and quality-controlled supply of M-sand, it was the first sand washing company that came to the mind of the contractor on commencement of the project.
Combo X70 from CDE Asia’s flagship Combo platform was the most sought-after wet sand processing equipment for this colossal project. The machine is equipped for feeding, grading, dewatering, water recycling, conveying, and sludge handling – making it an all-in-one machine. The ambitious plant has zero liquid discharge and 95% water recycling solution with minimal maintenance to process an accurate cut point of 75 microns of fine particles.
The patented Hydrocyclone and thickener combo technology ensures consistent production of M-sand quality as per IS Standard (Zone I-IV). In line with the basic environmental requirement for this project, Combo X70 guarantees zero waste and controlled silt production which places it ahead of its competitors. Given the significant volume requirement for the Expressway, contractors also benefit from the high RoI afforded by Combo X70.
Says Manish Madhogaria, Chief Business Officer, CDE Asia, “We are honoured and extremely happy to be associated with the Samruddhi Mahamarg Expressway project in Maharashtra. Our equipment enjoys the complete confidence of our customers as it is compact and has performed to their satisfaction over the years. Our aim is to always craft solutions to address the pain points of our customers, and offer them scalability and commercial success in all their projects.”
