The Chennai Corporation will soon call for expressions of interest from firms who have the know how to clean and dry plastic being collected for use in road re-laying.
“There are technologies available for cleaning plastic material. The plastic that we are getting presently is not very clean and we cannot use such plastic directly in road work,” said a civic body official. The Corporation gets around 20 tonnes of plastic every day from residents.
The plastic that can be used for road re-laying should be 20 microns - 80 microns thickness. Carry bags, milk packets, oil packets and plastic covers used to pack pulses, rice or other food items can be handed over to collection centres at ward offices. “These are materials that every home generates and disposes with other waste as old paper marts do not buy them. We want residents to collect and bring them to ward offices. However, pet bottles, PVC pipes of broken buckets would not be accepted,” said a civic body official. Work on re-laying roads and patching up potholes is in progress in several areas across the city. To ensure quality of the work done, the civic body is deputing engineers to supervise the work at all locations. To maintain the gradient, it is asking contractors to carry camber boards.
“We are ensuring that the heat of the asphalt mix is correct. In some locations we have even asked the contractor to re-lay the road if any of the norms are not being followed,” said a senior official.
Civic body officials carry digital thermometers and infra red guns to record the temperature of the mix.
