India’s first cement concrete steel slag road is being constructed near the JSW steel plant in Maharashtra’s Dolvi.
UPDATED: Mar 7, 2023 03:06 IST
By Mustafa Shaikh: Soon, Maharastra will get country’s first cement concrete steel slag road on National Highway 66. This road is being built steel slag (industrial waste) along with cement slag. A brainchild of Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), NITI Ayog and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). This technology is being termed as cheaper, durable and enviorment friendly way of building roads. The road is being built around 50 kilometres away from Mumbai near JSW steel plant in Dolvi. 1 km road has been constructed and the work is in progress. A similar technology was used in Surat for a bituminous road, but this is a cement concrete road. CSIR said it realises Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of waste to wealth. Behind every 1 tonne of steel, 200kgs of steel slag is generated. In India, 19 million tonnes (MT) of steel slag are generated very year with a stockpile of 140MT slag is lying unused in the country. By 2030, India is slated to generate 60MT steel slag every year. “For this road, processed steel slag aggregate and cement slag was provided by JSW from their plant. So, there is no natural aggregate used to make this road. So the construction cost of this road is lesser and its more durable than a cement concrete road made of natural aggregates. By using this technology, we can reduce the impact on air, land and water,” said Satish Pandey, Principal Scientist CSIR-CRRI and Inventor of Steel Slag Road Technology. On Monday, censors were put inside the road to collect data and monitor performance of the road. The data generated from here will be used to improves methodology of making the road at other places. National High Authority of India (NHAI) is also looking forward to this technology. “NHAI is aspiring to build thousands of kilometres of roads under Bharatmala Pariyojana. In this there are constant environmental challenges like not finding queries and shortage of material to be used in road. In this initiative with CRRI we are trying to replace natural aggregate by using waste material in the steel industry. So far results have been good, and we are looking forwards to replicate this technology in other roads,” said A Shrivastava, NHAI Regional Officer (Mumbai)
