Bengaluru Inaugurates its First Ever Plastic Road Made of 3,000 kg Waste

Image: Special Arrangement

The residents in Bengaluru will now drive on the city’s first-ever road, which is made entirely of recycled plastic. This tarmac has been built in partnership between PotHoleRaja, a social venture, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and ORR companies. The new eco-friendly road will connect Bengaluru’s RMZ Ecoworld with the outer ring road for relaxing the traffic congestion.

This plastic road consists of the first-of-its-kind solution, known as ‘GridMats,’ which is a revolutionary patented eco-friendly product. This sustainable material is not only durable but made completely using 100 percent plastic water for building roads and pavements.

GridMats consist of recycled polypropylene to form a bedding layer and come packed with various filling options. So, this material forms a flat, permanent and high-quality surface that takes almost half the time for construction. It even costs 20-25 percent cheaper compared to conventional materials.

Image: Twitter

According to Sourabh Kumar, Director of PotHoleRaja, commuters while exiting the Eco World currently have to go to Marathahalli and then take a big U-turn at Bellaundur. And, people entering the Eco world from the outer ring have to face inconvenience due to traffic congestion. The pile-up occurs because the commuters have to take a U-turn in a congested junction. But the new well-designed and well-connected plastic road is likely to cut down the traffic congestion.

Using GridMats, Kumar mentions that they have used approximately 3,000 kg of plastic water to build the road. It also takes 30 percent less water compared to concrete roads. It also does not need any steel reinforcement.

For the construction of this road, traditional road technology would generally emit 46.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. But thanks to GridMats, there are only 11.9 tonnes of CO2 emissions. It leads to a significant CO2 reduction than the conventional methods.

Image: University of California

PotHoleRaja has been evolving from small pothole fixing tasks to CSR interventions for making model junctions/roads. They also work with many big corporations and organizations throughout the country. So far, they have already mended more than 20,000 potholes in over 30 cities, including Bengaluru, Gurugram, Mumbai, Jamshedpur, and more.

Now with such plastic roads, they are likely to encourage the construction of more roadways with similar sustainable techniques. Hence, it would be convenient to combat the environmental plastic damage.

Via: HindustanTimes