Experts recommend use of ‘green technologies’ for road constructions

WORKSHOP HELD ON ‘NEED FOR GREEN RURAL ROADS IN SIKKIM’ 
GANGTOK, 24 April: The Green Mission Programme started by the Sikkim Government has helped the state achieve the status of one of the cleanest and greenest states in the country in the last six years. This has been possible due to the various innovative green initiatives taken by the State Government for past several years. Along with the protection and conservation of the rich biodiversity, the adoption of green rural roads in the State can play a vital role in the development of the state as well as achieve its Green Mission Programme, said experts at a workshop held on Tuesday.
Speaking at the workshop on ‘Need for Green Rural Roads in Sikkim’ today, Convenor of Fijeeha [Forum for Indian Journalists on Energy, Environment, Education, Health and Agriculture], Dr Navneet Anand  said “Sikkim under the leadership of the visionary Mr Pawan Chamling has scaled amazing heights in introducing environment-friendly programmes and it is time the state took progressive steps to ensure green rural roads which shall work as a model for the rest of the country”. The seminar was also presided over by Chief Scientist, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR and Central Road Research Institute [CRRI], PK Jain and CEO Bitchem, Rajeev Agarwal
Roads are integral to the growth of societies and it is imperative for North Eastern states to embrace the many new alternative and superior technologies of road construction including cold mix, public waste and jute. This would not only ensure enhanced rural connectivity-critical for growth but also give a much needed push to the central government funded scheme Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana [PMGSY], which aims to provide connectivity to all unconnected habitations in the rural areas in a time bound manner.
Chief scientist CRRI, the nodal body for roads research in India, PK Jain said “Today there are many new environment friendly and sustainable technologies available for road construction, which are specially suited to hilly, cold or rainy conditions like in the North East and it is imperative that we use these to enhance rural connectivity and prosperity by increasing the construction season”.
He said that the initial results of some such environment-friendly technologies including cold mix in Assam, which has been used to construct more than 1000 Kms in the last 3 years has yielded positive results which has helped the state gain substantial progress in the quality of rural and state roads.
CRRI has been constantly striving to push new and sustainable technologies in road construction across the country. Recently, it has given an exclusive license to Bitchem for cold mix technology in the North East region. Bitchem Asphalt Technologies is India’s pioneer in introducing and commercializing the cold mix technology in India. Rajeev Agarwal of Bitchem informed that Assam had taken a lead in introducing the environment-friendly cold mix technology in rural road construction and over 1000 km of rural roads have been built using this technology and the time is ripe for other states in the North East to follow.
Cold mix technology is considered greener, safer and facilitates faster roll-out suiting the climatic and terrain conditions of the north eastern region. According to National Rural Road Development Agency [NRRDA] of Ministry of Rural Development, road construction and repair work done using hot mix is often sub-standard and there is a need to use cold mix for the same, it was informed.
Bitumen Cold Mix is a simple mixture of unheated damp mineral aggregates and emulsified. Advantages  of the cold mix are versatile, economical and non-polluting, no heating of binder, no heating of aggregates, low capital cost on equipments, high rate of work progress, socio- economic benefit, it was mentioned.
The terrain in-and-around 70 percent of the North East Region is hilly and mountainous and the entire region gets very heavy rainfall ranging from 2500mm to 6000mm which makes communication difficult. Unlike plains, the construction of roads in hilly areas is different, extremely difficult and much expensive and hence it is important to innovate and use new technologies for faster and enduring roll out of roads.