Close to 96.59 km of road in Indianstates of Karnataka, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh and Tamil Nadu have beenconstructed using coir geo-textiles as onJuly 28. The material is used forimprovement of sub-grade soil strengthin road pavements and stabilisation ofside slopes. About 311.29 km of roadconstruction using this material has alsobeen sanctioned. The Indian RoadCongress (IRC) has accredited the useof coir geo-textiles in construction ofroads, union minister of state for ruraldevelopment recently stated. In order toencourage locally available materialsand use of green technologies,guidelines were issued by the ministry ofrural development in May 2013, whereinthe state governments are required topropose minimum 15 per cent of totallength of annual proposals underPradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana(PMGSY) under new technologiesincluding coir geo-textiles. The State ofArt Report published by the IRCHRBSRNo. 21-2012 said that coir and jutetechnologies have been proved to beeffective in protection of slopes. In thepreliminary observations by the NationalQuality Monitors (NQMs), these roadswere found to be performing well. It hasalso been found that by improving thestrength of the sub-grade soil the coirgeo-textile results in marginal reductionin the thickness of the granular sub-base(GSB) layer, thus reducing costs. Cost ofa road depends on the Schedule ofRates (SoR) of the state and localconditions. For those areas where coir islocally available, use of coir geo-textilesin road pavements is economicalcompared to the traditional methods ofsoil stabilisation, especially whentraditional material may not be available locally.
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