Plastic blends with city roads

dc exclusive - Plastic blends with city roads
BY CHETANA BELAGERE
BENGALURU








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The answer to Bengaluru’s potholes appears to lie in plastic blended roads, which have proved to be stronger and less bumpier during the recent rains that lashed the city.The BBMP has now decided to lay all the new roads using plastic blended material.

Says Mr A.K. Gopalswamy, Engineer-in-Chief, BBMP, “We are using blended plastic as much as we can. We are going to use it in all the upcoming constructions including the road widening project that we have undertaken. We have made it compulsory for its use on all the roads.” A plastic blended road does not need repair for five to six years at least, according to the BBMP. Till today, none of the plastic blended roads in the city have seen any problems. “These roads are very cost worthy and are the best option presently. They can solve the problem of bad roads and plastic disposal,” says Mr Gopal swamy. Bengaluru produces 10,000 tones of plastic waste in a year. The city has 45,000 km of roads which can consume 9,000 tonnes of plastic. Right now the BBMP is using only 2,000 tonnes of plastic, according to Mr Ahmed Khan, who came up with the idea of using the plastic waste thrown in bins to construct roads.

“I am so happy that my social obligation for manufacturing a non bio-degradable product has worked. My younger brother and I were thinking of a solution to reduce harm caused by our products and realised bitumen and plastic both belong to the petroleum family and are bio-degradable. So we thought of ways to use them,” says Mr Khan who runs the plastic manufacturing company KK Polyflex, “We thought why not mix both plastic and bitumen. Later we experimented by filling small potholes in Jayanagar with the mixture unofficially for two years from 1998 to 2000. To our surprise the results of these experiments were very positive,” he recalls.

After the smaller experiments and more thorough research the methodology was approved for use on Bengaluru’s roads.

The then Chief Minister S.M. Krishna was impressed by the innovation and as a pilot project 40 kms of Bengaluru were laid using the new material.

“First Rajarajeshwari Arch road was laid in 2002. Now, we have laid around 600 kms in the city and I am proud to say that these roads are just like they were five years ago,” adds Mr Khan According to him, push cart garbage collectors and rag pickers are their primary source for plastic segregation.

Many schools, colleges and hospitals have come forward to help the company out in its road laying project.