In an effort to recycle coir waste, Coir Board is looking at eco-friendly shelters that will replace tents for security guards and defence personnel in high altitudes.
The Coir Research Centre in Bengaluru has developed a model house made out of coir wood and it was displayed at the coir fair here recently.
As part of its marketing initiatives, Coir Board will build six model houses made out of coir wood and supply it free of cost to some of the Central Government ministries. “Security personnel can use these and those visiting the Prime Minister, Defence Minister or the MSME Minister will get to know about the advantages and applications of coir wood looking at the house,” said the Coir Board chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan.
The house withstood the vagaries of nature for two-and-a-half years in Bengaluru. It is a modular structure and can be dismantled in three hours to four hours. Accessories can be fixed to it easily and it costs just about Rs. 90 a sq.ft. “The house can be used to build temporary shelters in the event of a natural disaster. It can be used to construct shelters for security personnel or armed forces,” he said.
Kerala Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, who visited the coir fair here, has asked the Coir Board to build a model house in Alappuzha and said more houses could be built using coir wood after taking opinion from the public, according to Mr. Radhakrishnan.
The Coir Board will focus on three products – furniture made out of coir wood, coir geo textiles, and coir pith. Roads were laid for 13 km in Kerala and 10 km in Madhya Pradesh using coir geo textiles and it has been approved and certified by Indian Road Congress. These three products have immense potential in the market.
The four-day India International Coir Fair, which concluded here on Monday, generated export enquiries worth Rs. 200 crore and 1,200 fresh trade enquiries in the domestic market, Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
