The Coir Board’s project to test its eco-friendly reinforcement fabric, coir geotextiles, on rural roads in the country has hit a roadblock in the state, thanks to the delay in the tendering of the road work.
The project has been considered crucial for the inclusion of coir geotextiles into the Indian Road Congress Manual, a move that would put coir geotextiles on par with other standard road reinforcement materials used in government roads across the country.
The coir geotextile, an organic eco-friendly fabric made from coconut husk, has been gaining global attention owing to its qualities like reinforcement and water-holding capacity. On roads and on surfaces like lawns, the interlinking network of the coir fibres will absorb the water and drain it off, preventing damage caused by water-logging or soil erosion.
The Coir Board had authorised research institutes like NITs in eight states in the country to test and standardise the use of geotextiles on the rural roads constructed under the Pradhan Manthri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), following the accreditation of coir geotextiles by the National Rural Road Development Agency (NRRDA) and the Indian Road Congress (IRC).
Though like all the other states Kerala had a total of 50 km of roads to be laid with the geotextiles, only six km of the roads have been completed. In several cases, the work on the tendering has not been completed. The authorities, with the PMGSY scheme in the state, say that the response to their tendering was weak which led to the delay.
“The response to the work on the roads under the PMGSY scheme has been poor. In many cases, when we tender about 300 works, there are only about 20 responses, making it difficult for us to move forward with the project.
In fact, the response is poor even in the new tendering which was conducted after tender excess was allowed,” said Anandapadmanabhan Pillai, PMGSY Empowered officer.
Meanwhile, the project has had the worst delays in the 25 km in the seven northern districts where not even a single work on the identified roads has been laid with geotextiles. NIT Calicut, which is in charge of the project, has said that they would be able to start the project as soon as the road is given to them.