IN CONVERSATION
Speaking to Dr N Karuppaiah, additional director and centre head, NATRAX
Speaking to Dr N Karuppaiah, additional director and centre head, NATRAX, about the world class facility
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.
“Plus-minus 3mm is the tolerance level for evenness which we stipulated in the specifications. To achieve that you have to be careful right from the bottom and our engineers and contractors were careful in building to meet the stringent specifications. We can proudly say this is an open-air laboratory that will facilitate accurate measurements. Also the test-tracks have to be durable to produce repeatable measurements, when you do it today or a year later or five years later, we have to produce the same results. To do that, the surface has to be long-lasting. From that point of view also, the design was done in such a way.”
Final phase was from 2017 to 2020 and all other tracks were built from 2014 to 2017
“The project was sanctioned in 2005, the global consultant submitted their proposal in 2006 and after that we started working on the design. In 2008 the tender was floated and in 2010 the work started but due to contractual issues we had to terminate the contract in 2013. Construction of all test tracks other than the High Speed Track started in 2014, got completed in 2017 and was inaugurated on 28th January 2018. HST work started in 2017 and was completed in three years. In fact, that was the time stipulated as per the contract and we are happy that it got completed in a record time of three years.”
IDIADA in Spain did the master plan
“They also did the preliminary and definitive design and later we took the help of a national consultant, RITES Ltd who did the good-for-construction drawings and design of drainages and other infrastructure. L&T did the actual track construction.”
50 customers already in the clientele list
“Some are from OEMs. You name any tyre company, they’re all using our test tracks. And of course there are test agencies such as ARAI, iCAT and other service providers who have started using our facilities.”
`1321 crore was the amount allotted
“This includes the test tracks. In addition, we have laboratories such as the Vehicle Dynamics Lab and Powertrain Lab. We have support facilities such as client workshop, general storage, many administrative buildings and also internal and external utilities. And of course we also had to give some amount to the District Administration in terms of shifting utilities such as the water pipeline, road diversion, HT lines and also the rehabilitation.”
Dynamic Platform is a dynamic engineer’s paradise “Handling and stability test can be performed to the limits, considering we have a 300-metre diameter steering pad connected by a 1.5-metre long track with a vehicle dynamic test area varying from 20 metres to 100 metres width. All these handling tests can be done safely and to the limits.
“Other than that we have a Comfort track where we have different surfaces for evaluation of ride comfort, both subjectively and objectively. There’s a multi-friction braking track. These days tyre labelling is also coming into play, so the wet grip measurement becomes important and from the tyre testing point of view we have a pass-by noise track where interior noise level and the tyre rolling noise measurement can be done. The handling track is 3.6 kilometres in length. There is a fatigue track for accelerated durability testing. Since we have to cater for a wide range of vehicles we have configured this track in two circuits, low severity and high severity, in which a 1km run on the torture track is maybe equal to 40-50km on the normal road. That is how the accelerated durability testing can be done. We have a gradient track with seven different gradients to test the maximum gradeability of vehicles and some of the gradients also have low-friction surfaces which facilitate proving technologies such as traction control systems.” ⌧
“1321 CRORE WAS THE AMOUNT ALLOTTED TO THE PROJECT. THIS INCLUDES THE TEST TRACKS AND LABS”