Plastic waste roads set to go places in state

SHILLONG: After the huge success of plastic waste-made road in West Khasi Hills, the state government is now set to begin construction of similar roads in Garo Hills where many villages still have connectivity issues.
Director of Community and Rural Development, Arunkumar Khembhavi, said that the government initially plans to construct around 25 kilometres of plastic roads in Tura and other parts of Garo Hills and later, similar roads would be taken up in Khasi and Jaintia Hills region as well.
The construction of the plastic roads would begin in Garo Hills in February-March on a pilot project basis and the government has already started accumulating the material for the road in Shillong as well as in Tura.
The idea of plastic road was first introduced in Meghalaya in Nongkynjeng village in West Khasi Hills district when Khembhavi was the Deputy Commissioner there. A one-kilometre road was constructed in the village by mixing shredded plastic waste with heated bitumen, a technology developed by Coimbatore-based Vasudevan years ago, that makes the road more durable and solves the waste disposal problem in urban areas.
A kilometer of such a road requires around 500 kgs of plastics and costs about Rs 33 lakh.
If the idea of plastic road materialises in Meghalaya, the state can get rid of the plastic menace.
According to a World Economic Forum report earlier, plastic can make roads more durable against changing weather – floods, extreme heat and cold. It has less water-carrying capacity than normal roads meaning no cracks, potholes or craters. They are not only greener but are also stronger and maintenance-free and last about three times as long as a conventional road.