NEW DELHI: At least 500 tons of single use plastic (SUP), particularly waste polythene, will be used in building nearly 100 km of highways by October-end, a top NHAI official said. To achieve this, the government’s highway building agency has, for the first time, taken the ‘risk performance’ of roads which will be built using plastic on itself rather than holding the contractor responsible for poor performance.

This is one of the priorities that the road ministry has undertaken under the government’s drive to shun the use of SUP.

In a circular, the NHAI said, “The risk of performance of wearing course (top layer) in the identified stretches would be taken by NHAI for which post-construction performance monitoring of the identified stretches would be undertaken by regional officers through independent engineers with the help of using network survey vehicles twice a year.” Officials said at least seven tonnes, which is equivalent to 2-3 truckloads of plastic, can be utilised in building one km of a four-land road, if the road contractors use five to 10% of plastic that can be mixed with bitumen for laying the top layer.

They added that though the Indian Roads Congress had come out with a code to enable use of waste plastic in 2013, it never took off. “You can’t expect contractors to try new technology or materials, if you don’t stand by them. So, this time, we have made this clear that they will not get any extra financial benefit for using plastic as they will save on account of bitumen. But we will stand by them so far as performance of the road stretch is concerned,” said an official.

So far, nearly half a km of a service road along Dhaula Kuan-IGI airport (NH-8) in Delhi has been built using waste plastic. Another stretch on Delhi-Meerut Expressway will be laid by highway minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday.

A veteran in the waste plastic sector, Rasool Khan, who has been running a firm that shreds polythene and sells it for mixing with bitumen, said, “In the past 20 years, I see huge response from municipalities and other government agencies to use plastic in building roads. We get the raw material at Rs 6 a kg and one kg of processed product sells for Rs 23 a kg. This is one of the most efficient ways to get rid of polythene, which is the biggest problem.”

The highway ministry has set October 27 as the deadline for collection and use of plastic waste along highways. In its guidelines, the ministry has specifically mandated that waste plastic should be used within 50 km radius of urban areas having more than 5 lakh population.

