Significant Contributions to Civil Engineering Consultancy

Dr. L R Kadiyali, simplicity personified.

With significant contributions to Civil Engineering Consultancy, Dr. Kadiyali has established quite a few benchmarks with his dedicated service in the cause of fraternity. He was recently awarded the prestigious and the most deserving Gourav Award-2014, instituted by Association of Consulting Civil Engineers (I). ‘Built Expressions’ salutes these great engineers who have laid the path for us to tread. Dr. L R Kadiyali graduated in Civil Engineering from Bombay University in 1953, obtained his Post Graduate Diploma in Highway and Traffic Engineering from University of New Castle-Upon Tyne, UK, in 1973 and his Doctorate from REC, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, in 1986.

His subsequent contributions to the academia in terms of innumerous lectures across the country, Research-Development and Consultancy for several prestigious projects make him stand on a high pedestal of civil engineering excellence.

As a Chief Executive and sole proprietor of L.R. Kadiyali and Associates, his immense contributions came in the forefront when he pioneered the adoption of concrete roads on Expressways and Highways, developed cost comparison software for pavements which is being used by the concerned ministry and NHAI authorities and more significantly, when the World Bank used his economic analysis of Road projects in their Highway Design Model.

When asked about the initial impetus that made him to choose Highway and Traffic Engineering as his specialization, “though India has the second largest network of roads (about 4 mil Km as against USA’s 6 mil Km), the condition of roads in the country is extremely poor. About 1.4 lakh facilities take place every year on our roads and about Rs 30,000 crores economic loss takes place every year due to fuel wastages, wear and tear of vehicles and low speed of travel. The modernization of the country’s road system presents great challenges and opportunities to the young highway engineers. They can improvise and innovate and evolve country-specific solutions at economical cost, and keep in mind sustainability and preservation of the environment. My own entry into this field was not by choice as I was allotted to the Roads Wing of the Ministry of Transport by the UPSC on the basis of the Engineering Services Examination, but I deem it as a gift of God” he said.

Holding several key posts from Assistant Executive Engineer in 1957 to Chief Engineer in the Ministry of Surface Transport till 1986, his research interests cover infrastructural engineering with particular reference to Highway Projects, rural roads, Highway economics, Road Asset Management, Promotion of Concrete Roads. As a Study Director during the period 1978-1982, he successfully carried out Regression analysis for relating Accident rate to road characteristics and traffic. Dr. Kadiyali’s contributions in the preparation of DPR for World Bank Aided Road Projects in Bihar, Feasibility reports for several BOT projects, Vision statements and strategic Master Plans, comparative studies are praise worthy.

To a specific question about his role in World Bank aided Road projects he said-“I was privileged to head a World Bank funded research project known as the Road User Cost Study. The results of this study have been used to quantify the benefits from road improvements in monetary terms and for prioritizing the implementation of road improvement program under condition of limited resources. I was also privileged to lead a team to develop user-friendly software to work out the comparative cost of a conventional flexible pavement and a cement concrete pavement, both in terms of initial cost and life-cycle cost.

External aid for the Roads sector has been a welcome addition to the resource-starved sector during the past three decades. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and JICA (the Japanese aid agency) have been the major contributors of external aid for the Roads sector. The aid has flowed to various types of roads such as Expressways (for example: Ahmadabad-Vadodara Expressway), National Highways, State Highways, Major District Roads and Rural Roads (for example: PMGSY roads). In addition, several prestigious research projects have been funded by the external funding agencies (for example: Road User Cost Study by the World Bank, Updating Road User Cost Data by the Asian Development Bank). New techniques such as Output and Performance Based Maintenance Contracts have been introduced in the country in some States by the World Bank. Road Asset Maintenance System is currently being introduced for the National Highways by the World Bank”.

While drawing the comparison between India and other developed nations in terms of implementation of Road Technology, he says- “India has come up to the international standards in road technology in the past few years. But in many areas, India has to catch up. For example, the jointless Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement, the concept of perpetual pavements and noiseless “whisper concrete” are yet to be adopted in India. Indian highway engineers have the capabilities to catch up with world class road technology in highway and traffic engineering and encouragement by the government agencies will go a long way in achieving this”.

With plethora of successful and prestigious projects at his credit, Dr. Kadiyali has also authored books on Highway Engineering and Traffic Engineering published by Khanna Publishers, published more than 20 papers and articles in National and International journals and forums. Being a recipient of prestigious Life-time achievement award by the Indian Concrete Institute in 2011, his contributions in the field of Civil Engineering are worth emulating.