CHENNAI: After a long hiatus, the idea of laying plastic roads in the city seems to be reviving. The corporation mayor S Duraisamy on Tuesday announced that 45 new bus route roads will be laid with plastic waste matter between Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru Vika Nagar, Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam (zone IV to X) and Adyar (zone XIII) under the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund (TURIF).
The initial plan, which that took off in 2013 with Valluvar Kottam and Nelson Manickam Road, hit a block soon after it was conceptualised. The plastic-bitumen plan was dropped and the ward offices stopped collecting plastic waste.
The plastic road laying plan has been in the pipeline since 2011, as it would substantially bring down the restoration and maintenance costs, besides making the roads more effective for vehicles. It also thought of as an efficient manner to dispose of the hazardous plastic waste generated in the city.
However, the plan never really took off, with the civic body stopping the project in 2013 after purchasing 40 plastic shredders. The officials then had cited a lack of plastic of the desired micron thickness. The plan had been on the back burner ever since.
On Tuesday, the corporation announced that 45 rain-battered roads would be relaid using plastic. The idea, for which Professor R Vasudevan, Dean of Thangavelu Engineering College in Madurai, holds a patent, will soon be implemented with 50mm roadmix. Under the project, 40 mm plastic will be laid across major bus route roads in the city, making it more sustainable and resistant.
Several interior roads across the city that were battered by the floods too, will soon get a makeover after the restoration works finish. The tender process for roads in 10 zones have been finalised and work will cost the exchequer `122.89 crore. Officials said that 15 of these projects would focus on Tondiarpet (zone IV), while five will focus on the Ambattur (zone VII) and four in Thirovottiyur (zone I), where the scale of damage was more intense as several smaller roads had disintegrated, forming potholes.