19APRIL 2026In an interaction with Thiruamuthan, Assistant Editor at Industry Outlook, Dheeraj Panda, MD, Ammann India, discusses how India's rapid infrastructure growth is unfolding alongside rising waste and material shortages. He highlights that integrating recycled waste into road construction can help reduce costs and landfill pressure, while emphasizing the need for stronger implementation, better segregation, and consistent standards.Dheeraj Panda is a seasoned industry leader with over 30 years of experience, specializing in sales, marketing, business development, and customer support, with strong expertise in leadership, strategic planning, and operational excellence.INDUSTRY INSIGHTSWHY WASTE MUST BECOME A CORE MATERIAL IN ROAD CONSTRUCTIONIndia is building at a pace few nations have matched. The infrastructure pipeline, with national highways, economic corridors and urban transit networks, represents one of the most ambitious construction programs in the world. Running parallel to this momentum is a crisis hiding in plain sight, with a daily average of 1.85 lakh tonnes of solid municipal waste generated, growing landfills, etc., on one hand; quarries under pressure, and the cost of building a kilometer of road climbing on the other.The Challenge: Managing Waste While Building InfrastructureSpeak to any highway contractor in India today and the conversation will quickly turn to materials. Aggregate availability is tightening across multiple states. Quarry approvals are harder to obtain, transport distances are increasing, and royalty costs have risen sharply. For large infrastructure projects running over several years, material procurement risk sits at the top of the risk register alongside financing and land acquisition. At the same time, India generates over 60 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, a significant portion of which ends up in already-overburdened landfills.Policy Momentum Driving Circular ConstructionThe government has been quite instrumental in promoting the use of materials in infrastructural projects. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways led by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, has constantly advocated for the use of waste plastic fly ash and municipal waste in constructing roads.Bio mining operations at legacy dump sites, including those already underway along the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway corridor, are demonstrating that processed legacy waste is a viable infrastructure-grade input. The volume is there. The material is there. It just needs the right efforts to strengthen the systematic will to close this loopDespite growing recognition, implementation has lagged due to several factors. Waste variability demands rigorous Dheeraj Panda, MD, Ammann IndiaDheeraj Panda,MD
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