Mumbai: The State has made it mandatory to use waste plastic and industrially-recycled plastic in all road construction and repair works. The move, according to the government, will ensure roads with better quality at lesser price and help tackle the waste plastic problem, which is likely to arise after the ban.
A government resolution (GR) issued on Thursday directed the use of plastic in asphalting works following a successful experiment. The GR said the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research too has found that such roads are of better quality and less expensive.
“All roads made of waste plastic will undergo a quality test after every three months, and a report will be submitted to the State government after a year,” the GR said. Following the government directions, use of waste plastic in asphalting work will now have a special mention in road tenders, and the chief engineer of the respective area will be tasked with supervising junior officers on whether they are using waste plastic or not.
The Central government through a notification dated November 9, 2015, had made use of waste plastic mandatory in the upper layer of the asphalt road built by hot mix technique.
The State PWD department on February 2, 2016, had asked its regional offices to use waste plastic in building roads on an experimental basis. On May 25, the chief secretary had informed the Prime Minister via videoconferencing about the better quality of asphalt roads constructed by mixing waste plastic and that the technique is one of the answers to tackle the plastic problem.
