The textile engineering division under the Institute of Engineers (India) is pitching for wider application of technical textile in civil engineering.
SM Chatterjee, a council member of the Institute of Engineers (India) and the former vice chancellor of the Bengal Engineering & Science University, said the US and Europe have made it mandatory to use synthetic and jute geo-textile in road construction. But, India is yet to take off.
Use of both synthetic and jute geo-textile enhances the life of a road and makes it water resistant.
Jute geo-textile has been used in making only 47.5 kms roads in five states, namely West Bengal, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa, under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Synthetic geo-textile has been used in constructing only a stretch of the national highways.
India should lay emphasis on using jute geo-textile as synthetic geo-textile has to be imported, Chatterjee said.
In West Bengal, the state irrigation department has started using jute geo-textile for soil conservation and making river embankment, but the public works department is not yet using it in road construction.
The Indian Jute Research Association, National Institute of Research on Jute & Allied Fibre Technology and the Institute of Jute Technology are working on geo-textile, Chatterjee said. SK Bannerjee, a council member, said that the Union textile ministry has created a Rs 10-crore research and development fund for geo textile in eastern India under the Jute Technology Mission.
