Chennai: The Chennai corporation on Tuesday nodded on to a proposal to relay around 45 bus route roads using plastic waste. The civic body’s plans to relay around 1,500 km of roads using shredded plastic waste, first proposed in 2012, did not take off due to a combination of factors including hesitant contractors to worried environmentalists. Chennai, which generates the most amount of plastic waste next to national capital Delhi, does not process plastic and as a result these waste end up in the landfill sites at Perungudi and Kodungaiyur.
But now, the local body council has approved the plan for roads in zones four through to 10 and 13. The corporation had spent close to Rs 1.5 crore to purchase and install nearly 40 plastic shredding machines and set up plastic collection centres in all of its 15 zones.
Each centre had a shredding target set at 1,400 tonnes per year. Around one tonne of plastic waste is required to relay one km of road using bitumen mix. Sources said that the contractor lobby had resisted using plastic in the bitumen mix.
“But we have insisted that the contractors utilise plastic waste and set it as a condition to win the project to relay bus route roads,” said an official. The civic body also approved multiple packaged tenders to relay or repair around 4,000 interior roads in the city to the tune of Rs 125 crore. Officials added that the work to relay stretches will be completed before end of February.
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