Pollution-free mastic to be used to repair four major roads in Kolkata

As many as four important roads in Kolkata will be repaired using a technology that promises to be completely pollution-free.

The state public works department (PWD) will resurface the battered and cratered VIP Road, as well as Red, Hospital, and Mayo Roads, with mechanized mastic asphalt, a method that will be used for the first time in the city, next month.

Keep an eye on the city's pollution level. The technology, according to PWD engineers, has the potential to revolutionise road construction. They also claimed that the Gussasphalt machine, which was imported from Germany, would speed up the process by five times over current methods.

Mastic asphalt, which has long been favoured by road engineers due to its durability, has proven to be problematic due to the highly polluting manufacturing process. Following a National Green Tribunal ruling prohibiting mastic asphalt baking by the roadside, the state government pushed for an end to the practice in 2018, suggesting that concrete or bitumen be used instead.

However, bitumen is not an ideal choice in a city prone to flooding because it wears out faster; the presence of utility services beneath city roads, such as power cables, causes accessibility issues in concrete roads.

A senior PWD official told the media that given the amount of rain that Kolkata receives, only mastic asphalt can keep roads in good condition.

The technology allows mastic asphalt baked in a plant outside of town to be transported in a large boiler attached to a truck, where it will be kept at a temperature of more than 200°C to keep the mastic in perfect shape. A separate scraper, mixer, and paver will be attached to the vehicle, which will scrape the top and re-lay it with mastic asphalt.

The official said that whereas the current manual job can only cover about 100 m per night, the new technology will allow us to repave around 500 to 700 m per night. It will enable much faster and pollution-free repaving of road surfaces.

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