In order to save the struggling Jute Industry, the National Jute Board (NJB) is trying to diversify the excess capacity of the Jute mills into geo-textile or civil engineering applications.
"We are trying to diversify the Jute Mills to use their excess capacity for such products which can really take place of this sacking bags... And one of them definitely is geo-textile or the civil engineering application," NJB's Chief Finance Officer N Sengupta said on the sidelines of the 4th Exim Summit of the Indian Chamber of Commerce held here today.
The Jute Industry's annual production ranged around 16 lakh tonnes (LT) of all products, while the total consumption was of around eight to 9 LT for sacking bags which goes to the Government of India and the rest sold either in the domestic or in the export market, Sengupta said.
"Now in case the government stops taking these bags we have to utilise those eight to nine MT of Jute products... And these jute mills which have the excess capacity should be given an alternative to do that. We cannot let so many farmers and workers go out of work," Sengupta said.
"By diversification, people think about lifestyle products but that is not sustainable. So those are not the areas we are thinking. We are trying to concentrate on the bulk application and geo-textile or civil engineering are two such... It can be used in construction of roads, slopes, river banks and all types of soil erosions," Sengupta explained.
But the main difficulties the National Jute Board faced was with the applications of the process, he said.
"Technologically it has been proven and we have got the correct standards but the main problem lies with its applications," he said.
Its application was 100 per cent by the government sector. But until it is mentioned in the Schedule of Rate (SOR) of the tenders, contractors would not include these materials in construction, he added.
So far around 500 km of roads have already been laid in the country with geo-textile, he said.
"It's absolutely maintenance free for five years and the construction cost will be reduced by 10 per cent," he added.
In fact, the Assam state government has gone into a tie up with NJB to include geo-textile in their tender SORs. The West Bengal government had already done such inclusions in six seven places of road constructions, Sengupta said, adding that, around 1 km of the Uday Shankar Sarani in south Kolkata has been constructed using geo-textile.
