Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike

Bengaluru

Advantages of micro-surfacing





asphalt

6-mm layer will give ci ty roads added protection, provide smooth ride for vehicles, claimsPotholed roads? Broken boulevards? Peeled streets? Those are problems that the average Bengalurean – you and me – have to worry about. The BruhatMahanagara Palike seems to be in another world; in July, it will try out something called micro-surfacing, which makes roads waterproof. And Cubbon Road has been chosen for the pilot project. It’s a 2-km stretch which does not see too much traffic.The technology has been adopted widely in foreign countries, but is still comparatively new to India. Outside of Bengaluru, it has been successfully tried in Chandigarh and Chennai; last year, Hyderabad also micro-surfaced its Outer Ring Road ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.Micro-surfacing involves coating the road with a 6-mm-thick slurry seal that reinforces the asphalting and keeps it from crumbling. It also keeps the road dry and makes the ride smoother. (It doesn’t, however, help with the potholes which Bengaluru has thousands of).Last year, BBMP had tied up with Hindustan Colas Ltd (Hincol) to try out micro-surfacing (it was called ‘Road Doctor’) on Ballari Road on an experimental basis. But Hincol pulled out of the project as it was ‘not feasible’ for it to bring down machinery.BBMP has now tied up with an Ahmedabad-based firm, Elsamex, which carried out the micro-surfacing in Hyderabad last year. The firm claims that roads will last at least five years with micro-surfacing as water does not seep into the bitumen and corrode it. And since roads become waterproof, vehicles do not skid when it rains.Praveen Lingaiah, Executive Engineer, Traffic Engineering Cell, BBMP said, “Micro-surfacing is a mixture of polymerized bitumen emulsion, specially graded fine aggregates, cement, water and necessary additives, mixed homogeneously on site in a special micro-surfacing machine, uniformly spread immediately over a properly prepared surface by means of a spreader box attached behind the machine.“It is an environment friendly cold mix application treatment. It is applied over an existing pavement surface which is structurally sound but has developed cracks due to wear and tear,” he added. Micro-surfacing protects the surface and provides a high degree of polishing (think of it as Teflon coating for your brand new car).“We have already issued work order to the Ahmedabad-based company and the work will start before July 15. The company has given one-year guarantee,” Lingaiah said.Micro-surfacing Cubbon Road will cost the BBMP Rs 1 crore for the 2-km stretch. It is slightly higher than what Hincol had offered; Rs 6 lakh per lane per km.Srinivas Alavilli, member, Citizens for Bengaluru, said, “Investing such a huge amount of money just on pilot basis is not a good idea. It should be done free of cost for a smaller stretch and then the BBMP should take the call based on the success of the experiment. Also, the monsoon has already started; these things should have been done before the rains.” However, he added that any initiative that helps Bengaluru is always welcome.Nidhi Sumeet Sali, a deputy manager at Elsamex, said: “We have done the same work recently in Outer Ring Road of Hyderabad and we had approached the BBMP in January but it got delayed due to the elections.”