“IF THE RATING IS DONE, NATRAX COULD BE ONE OF THE TOP THREE PROVING GROUNDS IN THE WORLD”

Speaking to Dr N Karuppaiah, additional director and centre head, NATRAX

- SIRISH CHANDRAN

THE PROJECT WAS CONCEIVED IN 2005 “As per the Automotive Mission Plan, one of the objectives was to set up testing and R&D infrastructure in the country. The mandate was to create a state-of-the-art modern automotive proving ground for which the government of Madhya Pradesh gave us 3000 acres of land. NATRAX has 14 test tracks, labs and workshops to support the comprehensive testing and evaluation of automotive performance, and also be a centre of excellence in vehicle dynamics.”

There were many, many challenges

“Let me start with the topography of the land, there was an altitude difference of 20 metres from one end to another. The straight portion of the high-speed track is where the maximum testing is done and to make it accurate it has to be kept level at zero percent gradient. We had to cut 13 metres on one side and build an embankment on the other side of 7 metres. It resulted in 50 lakh cubic metres of entire volume — about 25 cubic metre of soil excavation, 15 cubic metre of rock cutting, and about 10 cubic metre of embankment building.

“As far as strata there was black cotton soil, also the high water table. That also opposed certain challenges in terms of design, so our consultants took special measures, be it in the design of the pavement, design of drainages, selection of materials or the construction methodologies to achieve the stringent specifications.