PARTICIPATION OF THE ENG. K.L.S. SAHABANDU, PRESIDENT—SLGS AT INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE-2023 AT  IIT – ROORKEE, INDIA

As per the invitation extended by the Prof. N. K. Samadhiya, Chairman of the Organising Committee of Indian Geotechnical Conference 2023 (which was held at IIT-Roorkee to as a part of the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Indian Geotechnical Society on 14^th – 16^th  December 2023.) Eng. K.L.S. Sahabandu, President of the Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society delivered a Keynote Address on “Advances in Design and Construction of Deep Excavations and Foundations in Sri Lanka”. In his presentation, past, contemporary and recent deep excavations and foundation development were detailed out with examples.

IGC-2023 had 13 Keynote Presentations  from experts on various parts of the world and about  500 presentations on 18 different themes namely   Foundation Engineering, Ground Improvement, Analytical, Physical and Numerical Modelling in Geotechnical Engineering, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Landslides and Slope Stability, Geo-synthetic Engineering, Geo-Environmental Engineering, Tunnelling and Underground Construction, Geo-hazards, Risk Reduction and Probabilistic Analysis, Unsaturated Soil Mechanics, Geo-material Characterization, Site Investigation and Exploration, AI/ML Application in Geotechnical Engineering, Case studies, Offshore Geotechnical Engineering, Dams, Embankments and Retaining Structures, Sustainability in Geotechnical Engineering and Geo-informatics Application in Geotechnical Engineering.

During the conference, a Hybrid meeting was conducted among the senior members of Geotechnical societies of the South Asian countries to discuss the forming an association, which had been initiated in GeoMandu conference held on 17-18 March 2023.

Prof Alberto Shou, Vice President- Asia, ISSMGE from Taiwan, from Pakistan Geotechnical Society Er Amjad President, Vice President Sohail Kibra and Dr Khalid Farooq, from Bangladesh Geotechnical Society Dr Sarwar Yasin and from Bhutan Karma Gayley joined online.

Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society President, Eng. K.L.S. Sahabandu, Nepal Geotechnical Society President, Er Mandip Subedi, Immediate Past President Prof.  Netra Prakash and Secretary Mr. Ujjwal Niraula along with Indian team comprising of President, Dr. Anil Joseph, Secretary, Dr A P Singh, International Networking Committee Chair, Prof Murali Krishna & NEC member Ravi Jakka physically participated in this meeting.

After the meeting, MOUs were signed between Sri Lankan Geotechnical Society and Indian Geotechnical Society and also between the Indian Geotechnical Society with Nepal Geotechnical Society for collaboration in the area of common interests.