Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, who also holds charge of the Public Works portfolio, said here on Saturday that the Public Works Department (PWD) would initiate steps to use plastic for laying roads.
He was speaking after inaugurating a seminar organised as part of the Aryad grama panchayat's ‘Green Kerala Clean Kerala' programme.
Dr. Isaac said trials conducted jointly by institutions, including the Government Engineering College, Thiruvananthapuram, National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) and the Kochi Corporation, had led to the discovery that plastic could indeed be used for laying roads.
The government would soon set up a committee comprising technical and environmental experts like R.V.G. Menon and Kuncheria Isaac to suggest the criteria and methods in which plastic should be used for the purpose. Machines to recycle plastic waste into plastic powder or granules would be installed in all local governing body institutions and Kudumbasree units. The PWD would purchase the powder or granule from these units while the Suchitwa Mission would provide financial and technical support, he added. District panchayat president R. Nazar presided over the function.
