Senior officials commented that the milled portions were not suitable for relaying a road
1,300 km of Chennai's interior roads that stretch over 5,560 km have been concretised at a cost of Rs 600 crore over the last two years. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: The Chennai corporation is dumping milled bitumen waste at landfill sites in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur as the civic body has no concrete plans at present of recycling it. After many decades and a pile of complaints from residents about increasing road height, the corporation recently started cold milling its roads before relaying. The Madras high court too had rapped the civic body for relaying without scrapping off the old surface.
However, the milled portions are collected and taken to landfill sites, say road contractors. “The corporation does not want us to mix the scrapped off bitumen with the new hot mix. They have asked us to collect the debris and dump it near playgrounds or wherever the site engineers ask us to,” said a road contractor, requesting anonymity.
The corporation spends significant sums on bitumen. Every road is laid at a cost of between Rs 45 lakh and a few crore rupees while patchworks easily cost the civic body anywhere between Rs 25 and Rs 60 lakh.
Bitumen can be recycled: Experts suggest that bitumen much like any other waste can be recycled. “The corporation needs a recycling plant to be able to do that. They can store the milled portions for however long they want and recycle when needed. Bitumen is a valuable resource,” said retired V. Thamizharasan of IIT-Madras.
“But the larger issue is that Chennai corporation is not actually relaying a road after milling the surface. They only scrap bits and pieces to level the road and create a gradient for rain water to run off,” he added.
Recycling the bitumen, as an option, is unviable for the corporation at this moment as officials admit that without a hot mix plant of their own operating within city limits, their options are limited. “There used to be a central asphalt mix plant in Egmore where the bitumen waste were taken to. However, the pollution control board ordered it shut,” said an official.
Senior officials commented that the milled portions were not suitable for relaying a road. “A couple of years ago we had examined recycling the milled material for road laying but it was technically found to be not feasible,” said an official.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
Next Story
