Plastic Roads

Plastic road is a great way to get rid of waste plastics. As soon as the BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre in 2014, they paid great attention to cleanliness and took various measures to keep the country clean and green. The idea of ‘Plastic Roads’ convinced this government and they incorporated it in Public Works Departments (PWD) of various States. The idea of Plastic Road first came to Simon Jorritsma and Anne Koudstaal in 2015. In India, the technology fulfilling the idea of making plastic roads was initially developed and structured by Dr. Rajagopal Vasudevan of the Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Chennai. The introduction of plastic roads in India has played a great role in reducing the threat of pollution from waste plastics. Jamshedpur in Jharkhand was the first city in India where plastic roads have been constructed. Soon after, many States accepted this technology and started constructing roads made with waste plastics. Assam is no exception, as PWD minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma took the initiative here and constructed plastic roads in Goalpara district and also at Kahilipara in Guwahati city. The one in Goalpara is about 45 km in length and a total of 36,260 kg of waste plastic along with bitumen was used to construct this road. This initiative is a proper way to get rid of plastic wastes in the Northeast region as it is getting worse day by day.

Partha Pratim Sarma,

Nalbari