Construction of 1 lakh km of road from plastic waste so far by Modi Gov

Modi Government’s ambitious Clean India campaign is a few steps further, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways launched an initiative to make use of plastic waste. The plastic waste that cannot be recycled in its original form is being used by the Ministry in road construction. With this use, about 1 lakh km of road has been completed so far. According to the report of the Hindutan Times, the government is planning to double its speed by the next financial year.

The historic decision to use plastic waste in road construction was first taken in 2015. The Central Government issued a notification to the people associated with road construction and made it clear that the use of plastic waste will be mandatory in this work. In 2016, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari officially announced this order. Since then, plastic waste has been used in about 1 lakh kilometers of roads in 11 states.

According to the report recently, about 10 tonnes of bitumen were required during the construction of 1 kilometer of road. After the central government’s order to use plastic, this process used to take 9 tonnes of bitumen, that is, it saves 1 ton of bitumen every 1 kilometer of road construction. The cost of 1 ton of bitumen comes to about 30 thousand rupees. This means that the government is saving about 30 thousand rupees for every 1 kilometer of road construction.

The proposal to construct a road using plastic waste was given by Padmashri Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a professor at Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. He is also known as ‘Plastic Man of India’, he said that due to plastic there are no pits in the road. They are more effective in withstanding floods and extreme heat than normal roads.

For this, a city municipal body first collects the garbage of the entire city, then the plastic waste has to go through three processes, cleaning it, then drying it after drying and finally crushing it. It includes all types of plastic. The plastic waste is made so fine in the plant that it starts appearing in 4 mm pieces. These pieces of plastic are then mixed with bitumen, followed by wire and coals. It is then heated to 160 ° C. Finally it is used in road construction.

Keeping in view the initiative of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the government had prepared several benches with the help of plastic waste. In October last year, Western Railway prepared 3 benches at the Church Gate station in Mumbai with the help of plastic waste. According to the environment ministry, 24,940 tonnes of waste is emitted daily in India, out of which 60 percent is recycled. The remaining plastic is dumped in garbage pits, drains into drains, pollutes or burnt in the ocean causing air pollution.

Source – OpIndia