Surat may get plastic road

SURAT: Ever imagined zooming on a plastic road? Could be a reality soon, if Surat’s civic body has its way. Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is seriously considering the proposal submitted by Hindustan Prefab (HPL), a government enterprise, for laying a road using plastic waste.

“It’s a new concept for us. We are seriously considering the proposal,” says VD Patel, city engineer with SMC. The company is likely to furnish details about costs soon.

In the next few days, SMC would identify a 5-km stretch in the city to carry out the pilot project.

Plastic waste in the form of used plastic carrybags, disposable cups and PET bottles will act as an important ingredient in laying the road. “When mixed with hot bitumen, plastics melt to form an oily coat over the aggregate and the mixture is laid on the road surface like a normal tar road,” said an engineer. Shredded plastic waste acts as a strong ‘binding agent’ for tar, making the asphalt last long and mixing plastic with bitumen increases the ability to withstand high temperatures, say sources.

City roads are normally asphalted with ordinary mix. The construction costs come to around Rs 300 to Rs 400 per square metre. However, the durability of such roads is less than three years. According to the proposal, the durability of plastic road is three-times better.

“The cost of plastic road construction may be slightly higher compared to the conventional method. But this should not deter the adoption of the technology as the benefits are much higher than the cost,” HPL’s deputy general manager (technical), M Kundu, told ET. He claims that the technology will result in lesser road repairs and that using plastic will help reduce non-biodegradable waste. “The costs are decided as per the availability of the plastic waste material in the region. The cost could be slightly higher than the conventional method,” he said.