Civil Engineering

To an ingenuous mind, the word ‘innovation’ creates an impression about something fanciful or technical fantasy, so expecting such phenomenon in a Government organization is beyond people’s normal expectation. In reality, however, innovations do take place every day driven by both large and small ideas in any Government Organization.

In a consumer industry, innovation is a creative idea that creates unique and compelling solutions valued by customers, which create real and substantial competitive advantage and creates extraordinary value for our company. But innovation is not limited to such commercial activity only. Innovation encompasses immeasurable value enhancement to customers, talent search and retention, employee satisfaction through opportunity to innovate and also value addition at industry level leading to brand enhancement.

The present paper discusses the forms in which innovation takes place in Government Organizations, particularly in Indian situation. Even with a solid record of innovation in government, the unfortunate reality is that our government employees too often succeed in spite of, not because of, their department’ policies and procedures.

Government systems and structures are fundamentally different than those of the private sector. Namely, our government is designed to perform reliably, not to adapt to changing circumstances. Lack of due care for innovation in Government sector is one of the important reasons for Indian trailing to 76th position in Global Innovation Index (2014). In this paper, such barriers to innovations have been investigated and a course of action to overcome such barriers has been discussed.

In India with its 1.2 billion plus population and 40%GDP as spending in Government sector, it is imperative that due emphasis is given to innovation in Government Organization to ensure sustainable economic growth in highly competitive world global market.

The paper also discusses some trendsetting innovations of Government Organizations, which have made history.

Infrastructure demand and the need to keep abreast with emerging technology have necessitated execution of large infrastructure projects based on the FIDIC contract form. Multilateral funding agencies also mandate use of the FIDIC contract for global acceptance and competitiveness. The use of FIDIC Contract Form is significantly different than the General Conditions of Contract in use in Government departments in India, so is the dispute handling mechanism. It has been noticed that neither parties nor the professionals, including judicial persons, involved in the dispute resolution process are well conversant with the concept and purport of FIDIC clauses not because of complexity but due to their preconceived experience with other contract forms which are primarily inclined in favour of the Employer. This paper examines the dispute resolution mechanism set out in FIDIC contract form, brings out the issues where it comes to loggerhead with Indian Laws and then discusses the way forward. It has been brought out that FIDIC has a very transparent and robust dispute resolution mechanism with emphasis on dispute avoidance which must be fully explored and utilised by the parties in dispute to avoid costly and time-consuming litigation process.

Government is poised to lay thrust on investment in transport infrastructure sector specially in road and rail modes, but several critical issues which, inter alia, includes ineffective dispute resolution, are cause of concern for timely project delivery.
Disputes in construction contracts in the transport sector are not only badly affecting the timely completion of the projects but also making severe dent on the financial health of the parties in dispute.
Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project is in advance stage of commissioning in which several contract packages have been completed. As the project completion progresses, the amount and complexity of the claims are also increasing necessitating an inquisitorial look into the dispute resolution mechanism to contain the adverse financial implications to the organisation. 
The present paper will explore disputes resolution mechanism in vogue in NHAI and DFCCIL, the two flagship organisations in road and rail infrastructure respectively and works out a case for DFCCIL, which is relatively a younger organisation, to learn lessons from NHAI for enforcing effective dispute resolution process.
It will also be discussed that what systematic and proactive mechanism DFCCIL has enforced for not only containment of the disputes but also for their effective resolution.

In international arbitration, arbitrators have procedural powers that allow them to manage and conduct the arbitration proceedings in a fair and efficient manner. These powers are typically set out in the arbitration rules that the parties have agreed to, such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) rules or the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) rules. Arbitrators have the authority to determine the procedure to be followed in the arbitration, including the admissibility, relevance, materiality, and weight of the evidence presented. They can also decide on the language to be used in the arbitration and the location of the hearings. In addition, arbitrators can issue orders and directions as needed to ensure the fair and efficient conduct of the proceedings. This may include ordering the production of documents or witness testimony, or setting time limits for the submission of evidence. The present paper critically examines the lex arbitri, the law that governs the arbitral proceedings, and makes out a case that lex arbitri cannot be challenged in court, as the parties to the arbitration have agreed to resolve their disputes through arbitration rather than through the courts. However, if the tribunal exceeds its powers or acts in a manner that is inconsistent with the lex arbitri, the parties may have grounds to challenge the tribunal's decision on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction or due process. The paper summarises some key judgments in which Courts have upheld or quashed the Tribunals procedural orders. It will be concluded that the procedural powers of arbitrators in international arbitration are real and not perfunctory, though bounded within powers extended by Parties to the arbitral tribunal.

Even though India was signatory to New York Convention since 1960 and enacted Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act in 1996 in line with UNCITRAL Model Law, the enforcement of foreign awards in India has a chequered history. Nonetheless, the Indian legal framework has undergone significant changes during last 5 years with a view to make it responsive to international best practices. 
The present paper brings out the existing legislative framework on India and examines the grounds for setting aside of an award and grounds for refusal of enforcement of few recent international arbitration awards to bring clarity on state of enforcement of foreign awards with respect to construction disputes under New York Convention.
The paper sums up that Indian legal framework has evolved significantly since ratification of New Yok Convention and in a series of recent pro-enforcement developments through important amendments and policy directives, which are reflective in Court’s judgments as well, Indian legal system is acknowledging foreign awards with less uncertainty.

The aim of this paper is to present an efficient and reliable computational technique for the analysis of soil structure interaction problems. In this paper a reinforced Timoshenko beam resting on an elastic foundation subjected to distributed load and point load have been analysed by means of Element-Free Galerkin method (EFGM). This is one of the efficient mesh-free methods which needs only nodal data and does not need any nodal connectivity, which provides an advantage over the FEM. Its shape function is constructed by Moving least square approximation. Galerkin weak form is used to develop the discretized system of equations. EFGM poses difficulties in enforcing essential boundary conditions. To overcome this difficulty Lagrange Multiplier is used. The results presented in this paper are checked for validity, convergence and accuracy of numerical solutions and compared with the exact analytical solutions. The granular fill, soft soil, and geosynthetic reinforcements are consider...

The deck slab of a Prestressed Concrete (PSC) box girder bridge serves as an integral part of the structural box section and any damage to the deck may seriously affect the load‐resistance mechanism of the bridge. This paper discusses a case study of a PSC box ...

The M6.9 Sikkim Earthquake of 18 September 2011 caused widespread devastation in the state and adjoining areas from disrupting the road network to damaging structures of commercial, public, and religious values. This event presented another opportunity to further the understanding of earthquake risk of the affected region as well as of the North-Eastern Himalayan region, which have similar patterns of

SUMMARY: Buddhist monasteries share a rich history in the culture and tradition of the Sikkimese Himalayan region. These monasteries, some dating back to 300 years, have played a significant role in portraying and conserving the architectural style of the Tibetan and Chinese construction. The M6. 9 September 18, 2011 earthquake affected most of these historical structures causing damages of varying degree. Post-earthquake ambient vibration measurements of main temple were made at three monasteries, which establishes them ...

The M 6.9 Sikkim earthquake of 18 September 2011 was a remarkable event in the long history of the Himalayan earthquakes which presented a unique opportunity to reflect on the unacceptable rising trend of the seismic risk in the hilly regions. Many dramatic collapses and damages were disproportionate to the observed intensity of shaking and can be attributed to poor construction material, deficient workmanship and lack of compliance with seismic codes and earthquake-resistant construction practices. Many private and ...

SUMMARY The M6. 9 Sikkim Earthquake of Sept. 18, 2011 caused widespread damage in the state and adjoining areas and it exposed the seismic vulnerability of the recently built multi-storied construction. Many building collapses and structural damages were disproportionate to the observed intensity of shaking, primarily due to poor compliance with seismic codes, inferior quality of raw materials and shoddy workmanship. In addition, many unique and inherently poor construction features specific to the affected region ...

Impact-echo (IE) is a widely accepted and applied non-destructive evaluation technique for quality control and defect characterization in concrete structures. IE is an acoustic method based on the propagation of impact-generated stress waves that are reflected by material defects or interfaces. Numerical simulations using finite element method (FEM) have been used to study the impact-echo response of structural component with complex geometry and boundary conditions.The present study focuses on developing a modeling methodology to simulate stress wave propagation in concrete plates. The significant modeling parameters that influenced the wave propagation and behavior were identified based on the literature review. A set of thirteen simulations were run to study the effect of each parameter. Time histories were recorded at four different locations to represent the waveform in an IE test. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) using Matlab was performed to transform the time-domain displacement...