Jute utilisation in road construction may quadruple

Jute utilisation in the construction of roads will be increased by 4 to 5 times over the next two-three years in the country.

The government has already taken up a pilot project for the construction of 50 km roads in five states "� Assam, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal "� by using jute geo-textiles.

"Two years back, jute industry supplied about 25 lakh square metres of jute geo-textiles for the construction of roads in the country. Now, the consumption of jute geo-textiles has increased to 50 lakh square metres. In the next couple of years, the jute geo-textiles' requirement in the country will be increased to 2.5 crore-3 crore square metres," Arun Kumar Bal, secretary, Jute Manufacturers Development Council (JMDC), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, told Business Standard.

Road construction cost can be reduced by more than 50 per cent by using jute geo-textile.

In road formation, jute geo-textile, which is obtained in woven and non-woven form in thick and heavy open mesh structures, can be used between the inner and upper layers of the road.

JMDC and the Central Road Research Institute have jointly taken up the construction of 50 km rural roads by using jute geo-textiles on an experiment basis. Once this technology gets standardised, the Indian Road Congress will recommend the inclusion of jute geo-textiles in the schedule of works for roads construction to government departments, he said.

Jute geo-textile roads are cost-effective, and maintenance-free for a minimum of five years. The cost of construction for jute geo-textile roads is Rs 25 per square metres while synthetic geo-textile roads cost about Rs 100 per square metre, Bal said.

Jute geo-textiles can be used not only in the construction of roads but also in the construction sector, river bank protection, slop protection and in agricultural sector, he said.

According to Bal, 16 lakh tonnes of jute products are being produced in the country. "This production will increase to 25 lakh tonnes in the next three-four years. While 78 major jute mills in the country are producing about 88 per cent of the total production, 1,145 small and tiny units, which are under the unorganised sector, are producing about 10-12 per cent of jute products," he said.

All the 78 major jute units in the country have the facility to produce jute geo-textiles. So, jute geo-textile production would see a manifold growth in future, he added.

Bal said that the government has targeted to increase the jute products exports to Rs 5,000 crore by 2010. "Exports contributed only 12 per cent to our total jute products worth Rs 6,000 crore last fiscal. Under the National Jute Policy, jute products exports may touch the Rs 5,000-crore mark by 2010," he said.

JMDC is opening five more jute raw material banks across the country this year. It currently has 30 raw jute material banks across the country.

We are supplying about 4-5 tonnes of jute per month to entrepreneurs through each bank. Our target is to increase the supply through each bank to 7-8 tonnes per month," Bal said.