A jewel of India's metro-rail story, Delhi Metro has consistently been making headlines. The most recent came with the opening of the Janakpuri West-Kalkaji Mandir stretch of the Magenta Line.

Tunnelling in India has seen some huge successes with hectic metro-rail construction in congested cities, the creation of traffic tunnels in the North and Northeast, and irrigation projects down South.

Underground construction is the largest application for shotcrete and this trend is projected to continue in the next five years owing to increase in infrastructure development, rapid advancements in technology and raw materials, and the growing need for transportation and underground excavations. In fact, shotcreting equipment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent.

Here's the buzz: Afcons Infrastructure has achieved a landmark by successfully boring 2.9-km twin tunnels below river Hooghly in the East West Metro Project, in Kolkata! One of the company's biggest achievements in the area of underground metro infrastructure has been the successful completion of tunnelling for India's first underwater Metro project.

As construction activities gain pace in the country, demand is likely to grow for high-productivity equipment, though traditional machines will also maintain their space. Equipment like excavators, motor graders, wheel loaders, paving machinery, etc.

With more than two decades of experience in transport engineering, J Kumar Infraprojects prides in having has an increasing and diversified order book in all business vertices including metro (underground and elevated), civil construction, roads, bridges, flyovers, pedestrian subways, skywalks, stormwater drainage, buildings, canals and piling projects.

Plans to construct 83,677 km of roads, highways, greenfield expressways and bridges at Rs.7 lakh crore.

While India's large urban population leaves tremendous potential for metro-rail network expansion, the country is paving its own success path on the metro route.

Roads: Plans to construct 83,677 km of roads, highways, greenfield expressways and bridges at Rs.7 lakh crore.