managing director, Marshal Geo Test Laboratory, Raipur; and Dr. L.K. Yadu of NIT Raipur coordinated and successfully conducted the seminar, which was attended by around 100 delegates. The lectures were delivered by experts from owner companies, academic institutions, consultants, geotechnical investigation agencies, contractors and testing agencies. Dr. G.D. Ramtekkar, dean (Planning & Development) and professor, Civil Engineering Department, NIT Raipur, was the chairman for the first technical session. Dr. N. Naresh, general manager of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Raipur, delivered a lecture titled, “Key Issues in Piling and Foundation Construction in Power Plants.” Dr. Laxmikant Yadu, associate professor and head of civil engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Raipur, spoke on “Soil Investigations-Local Practices and Problems,” while I.V. Anirudhan, vice chairman of DFI of India and chief consultant, Geotechnical Solutions, spoke on the “Importance of Soil Investigation.” The second technical session was chaired by Dr. R. K. Tripathi, professor, Civil Engineering Department, NIT Raipur. Dr. Sunil Basarkar, general manager, Technical Services, Mumbai and executive committee member of DFI of India, delivered a lecture on “Bored Cast-In-Situ Piles: Recent Trends and Equipment Technology,” while Er. Rambabu, director, Ultraco Ryobi, Ground Engineering, spoke on “An Overview of Micro Piles as Foundation Elements.” The final lecture was delivered by Ravi Kiran Vaidya on “Nondestructive Testing Methods of Pile Foundations.” Annual Conference The DFI-India 2016 conference, the sixth in the series, was held September 8-10, 2016, at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, Kolkata, in association with IIEST, Jadavpur University and the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS), Kolkata Chapter. A one-day workshop on “Soft Soil Engineering” preceded the two-day conference. Considering the Kolkata region has soft silty clay/clayey silt sedimentary deposits and a high water table, speakers were invited to deliver lectures on challenges and various technologies that enable underground construction. Biswanath Dewanjee, chief engineer (Civil), Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, delivered the first lecture on “Challenges in Soft Soils on the Kolkata Metro Project.” Jim Morrison, P.E., ILF Consultants, USA, and past president of DFI, covered alternative mining methodology and ground support technology for creating underground openings in soft ground in his lecture, “Underground Excavations in Soft Ground.” Thomas Fiala, P.Eng., and Erica Acton, B.Eng., Isherwood Geostructural Engineers, Canada, delivered a lecture titled “Observational Method, Testing and Monitoring for Temporary Excavation Shoring in Toronto, Canada.” Dr. Masaki Kitazume, professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan, presented a lecture “Deep Mixing for Underground Space Projects,” which covered aspects ranging from application, design, construction, QC/QA and performance of deep mixing technologies. Filippo Mira-Catto, geotechnical engineer, Rodio Swiss, Switzerland, presented case studies in his lecture titled “Jet Grouting as Underpinning and Ground Freezing.” Finally, there was a remote video presentation by Nico Rosenbusch, chief operating officer, ITC Advanced Engineering Asia, on “Settlement and Ground Monitoring in Combination with GeoMonitoring of Buildings.” The two-day conference on “Deep Foundation Technologies for Infrastructure Development of India,” focused on technology developments and case histories on drilled and driven piling systems, ground improvement, deep excavation systems and soft soil engineering in underground applications. In addition to 20 paper presentations and 8 poster presentations, there were 6 keynote lectures: “Grid Type Deep Mixing Applications to Liquefaction Mitigation” by Professor Kitazume; “Dynamic Testing of Driven and Drilled Deep Foundations” by Professor Samuel Paikowsky, ScD, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA; “Drilled Pile Systems State of Practice and Trends in the Augered Cast-in-Place and Drilled Displacement Pile Industry in the United States” by Seth Vaidya, P.E., Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, USA; “Optimization of Pile Lengths on the Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link Project” by Dr. Conrad Felice, P.E., C.W. Felice, USA; “ EFFC-DFI Tremie Concrete Project” delivered remotely by Karsten Beckhaus of Bauer Germany and Chris Harnan of CEECOM Consultants, Europe; and “Diaphragm Walls for Infrastructure Projects: How to Deal with Complex Demands” by Franz-Werner Gerressen of Bauer Maschinen, Germany. Exhibitors at the conference were Simplex Infrastructure, India; Keller Ground Engineering India; Aver Technologies USA/Soil Engineering India; Earth Products India; Rocscience; Attendees at DFI-India 2016 62 • DEEP FOUNDATIONS • NOV/DEC 2016
