Abstract

In present days, the cultivation of land at the tail end has reduced, reasons being - insufficient irrigation water and inefficient distribution of canal water to the tail ends. As a result, farmers of Peddapatnam village are unable to carry out cultivation satisfactorily. This study is carried out to address this problem and to provide remedies. Peddapatnam canal is selected as the study area in the present paper. This canal (16°21'35.89"N, 81°15'42.82"E - 16°19'24.92"N, 81°19'46.10"E) is a branch canal of Bantumilli main canal (16°20'37.00"N, 81°3'28.61"E - 16°23'52.02"N, 81°26'13.82"E), located in Krishna district of the Andhra Pradesh State. The water from the canal is the only source for cultivation and groundwater is unsuitable as it contains a large amount of salts. Firstly, the current flows of the Bantumilli canal are found and the total cultivable land in the purview of the canal is determined. Later, a topographic survey is conducted and the longitudinal profile of the canal is drawn. Farmers and irrigation experts (who are familiar with the study area) were interviewed to know the causes and find possible remedies for the problems encountered. The problems identified are, viz., (i) Low maintenance of the canal (ii) Canal being unlined (iii) Absence of protection of side banks (iv) Damage caused by animal movements (v) Siltation (vi) Non-cooperation of some influential farmers. Seepage and evapo-transpiration have also greatly affected the efficiency of canal distribution. Based on the above observations, two recommendations are proposed, viz., (i) Construction of a retaining wall or (ii) Construction of a canal lining. Additionally, it is recommended to install solar panels along the canal to address the power shortage problem of that area. An income of 30 million Indian rupees is realized due to the installation of a canal-top solar plant, for the cash-strapped region under study.

Abstract

In this study, an attempt has been made to stabilize/solidify (S/S) contaminated dredged soil collected from Najafgarh drain, New Delhi. Such types of soils are often stabilized/solidified by using Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) as stabilizer. But the major concern with this traditional stabilizer is that its production procedure is energy intensive and contributes to CO₂ emissions. Ground Granulated Steel Slag (GGSS) with its cementitious properties can be used as partial replacement of the cement. Hence, in this study, it has been used as OPC replacement and soil stabilizer has been prepared by partially replacing OPC with GGSS (1:1). The laboratory experiments were conducted by adding 4% to 20% of GGSS–OPC mix to the contaminated dredged soil. Results revealed that GGSS-OPC mix effectively S/S the contaminated dredged soil and the results were also better in comparison to S/S with OPC only. On the basis of the performance criteria and results obtained, it has been proposed that the contaminated dredged soil after S/S with GGSS-OPC mix can be beneficially used as a construction material for highway subgrade or sub-base.

Abstract

The performance of pavement depends to a large extent on the strength of subgrade. Subgrade should be strong enough to take up the stresses imposed due to loads without shear failure and excessive deformation. Subgrade layer consisting of clay-sand-gravel mixture is advisable for all types of substructure condition. Subgrade soil strength is evaluated in terms of California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and is used in design of flexible pavement. This paper describes the influence of clay content on compaction characteristics, unsoaked CBR values, and undrained shear parameters of clay-sand-gravel mixture. Experiments were conducted on nine different mixtures of clay-sand-gravel under heavy compaction characteristics to measure unsoaked CBR and shear parameters. Clay-sand-gravel mixtures were prepared by mixing clay content to mixture of sand and gravel in varying percentage from 10 to 50% at the increment of 5% by weight. Sand and gravel were mixed in equal proportion by weight. The influence of clay percentage, dry density and moisture content on CBR, cohesion and angle of friction was examined. A functional relationship has been identified to estimate CBR of clay-sand-gravel mixtures. Using multiple linear regression analysis, a relationship is proposed to estimate CBR of clay-sand-gravel mixtures under unsoaked conditions. Based on multiple linear regression analysis, statistical assessment is done to predict the behavior of the variables on CBR. The presented experimental works as well as statistical results are useful in assessing and predicting the performance of subgrade layer in pavement construction.

Abstract

Kangsabati reservoir receives the flow mainly from the river Kangsabati and Kumari, situated in the extreme western part of West Bengal state in eastern India. It is considered as a drought prone area with irregular rainfall. The reservoir is flashy in nature and experiences huge flood with a high peak during heavy storm within a short duration causing the possibility of flood risks. Therefore, it is essential to predict the runoff and flood volumes in the Kangsabati basin. So, there is a requirement to develop the watershed modelling for the said reservoir in HEC-HMS software. The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) based watershed delineation is the primary prerequisite for hydrologic modelling in HEC-HMS. In this study, ASTER DEM of 30 m resolution has been used to delineate the catchment area of a real system Kangsabati reservoir in ArcGIS 10.4. Different intermediate results were generated during the model run and finally catchment area map has been generated and basic parameters were also defined. The watershed area obtained from this delineation process is 3622 km² while it was 3625 km² reported in the Department of irrigation, Government of West Bengal. This difference in watershed area is due to errors from the estimation using traditional delineation. The different watershed parameters, such as area, flow path, drainage pattern, river slope, position of rain gauges, etc., generated from delineated watershed shapefile will be used as input in HEC-HMS to develop watershed modelling for investigating the possibility of flood occurrence in the Kangsabati reservoir. It can be useful for further analysis of sedimentation, improved land use practices, watershed management, etc., for the Kangsabati reservoir in future.

Abstract

Air pollution is a major concern in industrial, urban, and semi-urban locations. Health problem are associated with air quality. Monitoring of all components of air pollution like Particulate Matter (PM₁₀), Sulphur Dioxide (SO₂), and Nitrogen  Dioxide (NO_x) absorptions have become a high environmental importance. Urban or semi-urban locations in study area like Ghatsila, Surda, Adityapur, and Mosaboni have more contribution in point source of pollution. It is necessary to predict the effective areal distribution of pollution base. In the present study, air quality index has been calculated to predict the air quality status based on health risk level. Prediction of pollution sources and indexing is possible in remote areas with the combination of statistical and GIS tool. From the analysis, it is obvious that Adityapur is falling in high-risk zone in a risk scale of 10. However, the maximum area is falling in low risk (1-3) zone and some locations are falling in moderate (4-6) risk zone. This study evaluates the overall environmental quality of the study area.

Abstract

The present day public procurements are largely empirical and at best partly scientific. Many irregularities, breach of fiduciary duty and inaccuracy in bids are very frequently reported in the press and the beneficiaries of public works namely common people and law abiding citizens have become vulnerable and have always been at the receiving end. System improvements are far less than necessary and value for public expenditure is not conspicuous especially in public procurements. A clear road map for ensuring transparency and accountability is presented in this paper.

An element of irrationality is built-in inadvertently in bidding processes often leading to delays, losses and unwarranted disputes in the form of arbitrations. This unhealthy trend in public procurements should be taken seriously, unless it will result in catastrophes in project management. In Indian Railways which is a major infrastructure undertaking in India only two criteria namely 35% criteria and 150% criteria are to be fulfilled in any procurement and it can be commented that still the practice is in a primitive stage. An attempt has been made to expand these criteria in a practical and highly rational perspective so that the public works are proposed, processed and executed by scientific methods so that the objectives are not compromised. As many as 14 criteria which are taken into account in majority of developed countries are enlisted, analysed and adopted in a customised railway perspective. A rational model to evaluate bids is proposed which takes into account the bid value quoted in relation to estimated value of the project to bring out relative merits of the bid value. The evaluation of this model is compared with the one published earlier and the model evaluation reveals that the proposed model is more pragmatic.

Abstract

Deposition of tar residue is a seasonal phenomenon because it is observed during monsoon season. Coastal line is a boundary line between land and water surface. It is important to study impact of oil tar ball pollution because this phenomenon produces a very damaging effect on the ecosystem of the beaches. Many studies reported effect of tar ball pollution on different beaches. This paper also includes the impact of oil spills on the coastal ecosystem of Alibaug, but other effects like social and financial will not be analyzed. Large numbers of tourist visit Alibaug beaches. But in recent year, due to marine pollution and problems like oil spillage from ship accidents, Alibaug beaches have also got affected by tar ball pollution. Oil spill accidents are increasing day-by-day due to increase in transportation of oil through ships. One test is also included in this paper by compability with bituminous properties. This paper gives general information of oil spill pollution along Alibaug coastline, from which, it is possible to adopt preventive measures to reduce the number of oil spill accidents.