By Vishwas dass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 20: The state government has evinced interest in constructing roads from jute geotextiles (JGT) technology which is believed to be cheaper than conventional method and has better longevity over bituminous road.
Chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati has reportedly asked the state public works department (PWD) top brass at the 75th Indian Roads Congress to invite officials of National Jute Board (NJB) to give a presentation before him at the secretariat.
If the government takes a final call on the matter, roads in the state would be built out of eco-friendly material.
Notably, the JGT technology is being used for erosion control, river/canal bank protection, road construction and prevention of railway track.
The NJB officials expressed satisfaction over the state government’s interest in laying urban and rural roads through JGT technology which is indigenous.
“The construction cost of roads made of JGT is 10 per cent less than the conventional method,” NJB’s project coordinator Pradip Choudhary told Orissa POST Tuesday, adding the new technology gives longer life to the roads.
Choudhary, however, said engineers are yet to accept the technology as they believe bituminous roads are better and saves times which are the wrong fact.
He further said states like West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are already using the technology to lay roads to meet environmental concerns.
However, two stretches of roads have already built in Orissa—the 2.15 km-long stretch in Jajpur Road and four km stretch in Kendrapada 2007 and 2009 respectively where it was lauded by the local engineers.
It may be mentioned that eight states namely West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Chhattisgarh and Meghalaya are producing 1.7 million tonnes of jute annually.
Interestingly, Unites States of America, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany and United Kingdom have also approached the NJB to emulate the same technology in their respective countries as well.
PWD chief engineer BC Pradhan confirmed the development and told this newspaper that the government is very much keen to opt the jute technology to build the roads as it has multiple advantages over conventional methods.
