By Our Reporter
Shillong: The Air Force authorities are contemplating to construct a portion of the road leading to its station in Upper Shillong with the bitumen-plastic material.
“For the first time we are taking up this road project with the bitumen-plastic material,” Air Force Garrison Engineer Ashish Dwivedi said during his meeting with State Planning Board (SPB) Co-Chairman John F Kharshiing, who has collected detailed information about this new construction material from experts of Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai in Tamil Nadu on Friday.
He further said that IAF was exploring the possibility of constructing the road on a trial basis.
“If it is successful we would use this new construction material for other roads also,” Dwivedi said.
Earlier, it was reported that the Shillong cantonment board will use the technology, known for its durability, to re-construct a four-km stretch in Jhalupara area of the city which gets damaged every year due to heavy rains.
Meanwhile, Kharshiing informed that the SPB would submit its recommendation to the Meghalaya government that the plastic tar road technology should be adopted in the State considering the weather conditions here.
“If Meghalaya adopts this simple and cheap concept, cost for construction will decrease, as only 9 tonnes of bitumen for one km and 1 tonne of plastic waste would be required against the normal 10 tonnes of bitumen being used for 3.75m width road,” the SPB Co-Chairman said.
Kharshiing also informed that Chairman of the State Planning Board Dr Donkupar Roy has decided to construct a road in his Shella constituency next year on trial by using the same technology. The fund for the project would be earmarked from the lawmakers’ local area development fund.
Kharshiing said the technology if adopted would contribute immensely to the control of pollution and generate income activities for people.
