Mumbai: Plastic in roadworks still in paper after one year of plan

Its almost a year, the plan of using plastic waste in roadworks is still on paper. The Road Department of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has not used plastic for even a single road in the city. The department says that it is currently studying plastic compatibility in Mumbai's roads and availability of provider.

In August 2017, the BMC administration had stressed on waste segregation and processing of waste in housing societies as its dumping grounds have reached to saturation level and the civic body has to look for other ways to process waste.

The civic administration had come up with an idea to curb the menace of ever-growing plastic waste and planned to use it for roadworks. The plan had also received a go-ahead from the Civic Chief.

However, it is around one year, there is a little or no progress in this direction. Vinod Chithore, chief engineer of Road department of BMC said that the department is studying possibilities of using plastic waste in city roads. He said that we can use a very little amount less than 6 per cent in the material used for constructing in roads.

Chithore said that a proposal on the same has already been sent to the government-appointed Standing Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) for approval. "We procure material for road work and we have to check available provider in the city who can provide mixture having plastic content," said Chithore.

Recently, the Union Ministry of Roads and Highways proposed to make it mandatory to mix 8 per cent plastic waste and tyre pieces with bitumen in the road construction, both in urban and rural areas across India. The government believes that plastic increases the durability of roads during monsoon.

Interestingly, the BMC had already carried out a trial of using plastic about three years ago in Dadar and it was quite successful.

Every year, the BMC spends crores of rupees in roadworks especially before the monsoon. However, the civic body has always been accused of poor quality works and over spending. In addition, the BMC also experiments with new ways of roadworks to ensure long lasting especially during monsoon. Even, it imports materials to fill potholes during monsoon.

ONE FOR THE ROAD

• The Road Department of BMC says that it is currently studying plastic compatibility in Mumbai’s roads. 
   
• Interestingly, the BMC had already carried out a trial of using plastic about 3 years ago in Dadar and it was quite successful