VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh has stood fifth in the country in use of waste plastic material in the construction of national highways. In the current financial year of 2022-23, the total length of national highways which used waste plastic for construction, is 32.87 km till January. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 343.94 km, followed by Karnataka (97 km), Chhattisgarh (86 km) and Madhya Pradesh (64.83 km).
This was disclosed by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, in a written reply to a question by YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy. The MP sought to know if Andhra Pradesh is one of the leading States where plastic is extensively being used for construction of national highways, the status of use of fly ash, iron and steel slag, construction and demolition waste in building national highways.
As per the details provided by Gadkari, Andhra Pradesh has got 209.4 km length of national highways in the last five years, where waste plastic was used in construction. In fact, use of such waste commenced in 2019-20. The State got 95.61 km of national highways constructed, in which plastic waste was used, last fiscal.
Uttar Pradesh, which also started using plastic waste in national highway construction from 2019-20, has a total length of 1,163.37 km of road, where plastic waste was used for construction. Karnataka, which stood second has a total length of 521.8 km.
Gadkari said more than 359 lakh metric tonnes of fly ash and 7.28 lakh metric tonnes of construction and demolition waste has been used in construction of National Highways. The total length of National Highways constructed using iron and steel slag is 68 km.
The policy guidelines have been issued by the ministry and standards/manuals have been published by the Indian Road Congress to utilise waste plastic and other waste materials such as fly ash, iron and steel slag, construction and demolition waste, etc in construction of national highways, he informed.