TURA: The State Government is looking at application of geotextiles for construction of roads in unstable areas and embankments for flood control. With this aim in view, a team from National Textiles Corporation Limited (NTCL) and State PWD made a site inspection of a road near Tura on Wednesday which will be taken up as a pilot project for construction with use of geocells.
In this regard, a presentation was made to Chief Minister Mukul Sangma earlier on Tuesday afternoon by Director (Marketing), NTCL, Aloke Banerjee on application of geotextiles in the presence of senior PWD officials of Garo Hills at Circuit House, Tura with a promise of quality and sustainability.
It may be mentioned that NTCL is a Central PSU under the administrative control of Union Ministry of Textiles, incorporated in 1968 and is vertically integrated with 23 state-of-the-art mills of a wide range of quality products in yarn and fabrics. It has been supplying uniforms and sarees to various state governments, PSUs and private companies and is fully equipped in developing world class uniforms and technical textile solutions to Defence and Home Affairs ministries.
It has recently made entry into technical textile projects ranging from protective textiles to geotextiles.
In the recent years it started coordinating with Northeastern states on use of agro and geotextiles to combat the challenges of civil engineering right from project identification and implementation.
In his presentation Banerjee highlighted that the geotextile technology will help improve the stability of the soil, which would increase the viability and the strength of the road. He said that the technology can be used for all-weather road as well as kutcha roads in the villages.
The government will also look at the possibility for embankment project with use of geo-bags along the Jinjiram River in West Garo Hills, which is prone to flood and geocells for areas which are prone to landslide.
The NTC has taken up embankment project along the Brahmaputra in Assam using the geo bag technology, which has been mooted for projects in Meghalaya as well.
The NTC has expressed its keen interest to work with local contractors to introduce the technology. They said that the new technology would increase the cost of construction initially to 10-15 per cent, which will provide more stability to roads as it would not require repair and maintenance for at least seven to eight years.
The Chief Minister instructed the PWD to tie up with NTC to look at possibilities for initiating a few projects in the State with textile technology.
He said he was looking forward for a more effective partnership with the NTC for taking up ramie-considered to be the strongest natural fibre – as an alternative to jute textiles keeping in mind the potentialities of the farmers who grow this fibre plant. He suggested that the corporation consider the use of Ramie for their technical textile products.
