Plastic road work begins

 A stretch of Valluvar Kottam High Road, where the Chennai Corporation began laying plastic roads on Monday. Photo: S.S. Kumar Work on the first plastic road for a bus route in the city commenced on Monday.

The Chennai Corporation's Bus Route Roads Department on Monday started milling and re-laying work on the stretch of Valluvar Kottam High Road and Nelson Manickam Road.

According to Corporation officials, the work on the first stretch of plastic road on a bus route would be completed on January 31. A stretch of 800 metre bus route of Valluvar Kottam High Road from Unit Office 21 Junction to Dr.MGR Salai junction would have 13,700 square metre of plastic road.

A 1,250-metre stretch of Nelson Manickam Road would have 22,500 square metre of plastic road.

The civic body would complete re-laying of 121 plastic roads on 80-km-long bus routes at a cost of Rs.51.7 crore in three months.

Shredded plastic waste would form at least 8 per cent of the weight of the binder used for re-laying. Initially, the civic body planned to use plastic for re-laying of the top layer of 40 mm in the roads.

The 75 to 50 mm macadam layer beneath the top layer of 40 mm is also likely to have plastic content in areas where damage to road is high.

The Corporation has put in place bins for collection of plastic waste in every ward office. The civic body is procuring plastic for road re-laying, as it is yet to get enough plastic waste from residents.

Patch work on Anna Nagar West School Road, Perambur High Road, Greams Road and Taluk Office Road also began on Monday.

Work on 292 km of interior roads started earlier this month at a cost of Rs.59.5 crore. The work would resume shortly.