Calibration facilities will cater to the quality assurance efforts of cement & construction industry, PSUs, laboratories of CSIR, state & central governments.

Joint Secretary, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Shri Sanjiv Singh, in presence of Shri M K Singhania, Joint Managing Director & CEO, J K Cement Ltd. and Dr L P Singh, Director General-NCB inaugurated the Advance Calibration Laboratory and 500 kWp Solar Roof Top at National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB) Ballabgarh on 23^rd December 2024 on the occasion of 62^nd NCB Day celebrations. On the occasion, a Hindi magazine “NCB Darpan” was also released.

Shri Sanjiv, visited the Advance Calibration Laboratory and interacted with Scientists & Engineers of NCB. The laboratories house state-of-the-art facilities for the calibration of Force Proving instruments (2 to 200 kN), Mass (1 mg to 150 kg) & Volume and Pressure (1.5 to 1400 bar). The force calibration system at NCB is one of the first facilities in the field of cement and construction Industry. These calibration facilities will cater to the quality assurance efforts of cement & construction industry, PSUs, laboratories of CSIR, state & central governments.

Under the aegis of DPIIT, NCB has installed 500 kWp Solar Roof Top at its Ballabgarh campus. This will help in reduction of CO₂ emissions and electricity bills. NCB is also assessing the carbon footprint of its Ballabgarh campus through its incubated StartUp “Zero Carbon One”. Zero carbon is also helping NCB to become Net Zero CO₂ campus. The Government of India has approved the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana on 29^th February, 2024 to increase the share of solar rooftop capacity. Under this Scheme, all Government Buildings Roof tops was targeted to be saturated with the Rooftop Solar to the extent that is technically feasible by 31^st December 2025.

Shri Sanjiv, and Chief Guest on the occasion appreciated NCB for its R&D and technical activities. He appreciated NCB for establishing a World Class Facility for Calibration. Shri Sanjiv desired that the Centre of Excellence for Building Materials should be established at NCB with the help of DPIIT and all stakeholders. He emphasized that Cement sector had been contributing towards the growth and development in many ways such as providing adequate quality cement for national infra and housing needs, providing jobs to lakhs of people directly and indirectly, contributing to national exchequer.            

Dr L P Singh, Director General-NCB informed that 500 kWp Solar Roof Top has been installed under the aegis of DPIIT to support the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana. Dr Singh highlighted that the Advance Calibration Laboratory will cater to Labs of cement and construction industry. He highlighted NCB activities in the field of decarbonization, waste utilization and circular economy, carbon capture and utilisation, Education and training, Artificial Intelligence etc.

About National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB):

National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB) is an apex Research and Development organization under the administrative control of DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. NCB is dedicated to research, technology development & transfer, education & industrial services for cement, allied building materials & construction industries. More about NCB: https://www.ncbindia.com.

Rooftop solar policy supports solar installation at NCB, advancing decarbonization and energy savings and carbon footprint assessment via startup collaboration. NCB inaugurated an advanced calibration laboratory providing force, mass, volume and pressure calibration services to support quality assurance for the cement and construction industry, PSUs and government laboratories, and installed a rooftop solar system under DPIIT aligned with the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana to reduce CO2 emissions, assess campus carbon footprint with an incubated startup, and advance Net Zero aims while pursuing a proposed Centre of Excellence for Building Materials.