Soil from landfills to build highways
New Delhi: The government will soon come out with policy guidelines mandating the use of urban solid waste in all highway projects across the country. The plan aims to reduce the use of soil from agricultural land for building embankments for highways, as well as provide a viable outlet for millions of tonnes of solid waste from landfills.
An embankment requires earthen material that is placed and compacted for the purpose of raising a roadway above the level of the existing surrounding ground surface. This normally uses soil from private land closest to a highway.
According to officials privy to the plan, under the new policy guidelines, public sector highway building agencies such as the National Highway Authority of India as well as private sector entities would be mandated to use processed inorganic solid waste—inert material or soil generated from processing and bio-mining of solid waste—in building embankments for all upcoming and under construction highways and roads. Building agencies would also be mandated to use the Gati Shakti portal to identify solid waste processing sites earmarked under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 and enter into contracts with the municipalities closest to highway sites for supplies.
The cost of this material would be built into the project cost which would be 10% less than the cost of soil sourced from private land. The official quoted above said that draft policy guidelines on use of urban solid waste have already been issued and the roads ministry proposes to finalize the policy for implementation by the end of the month.
Queries sent to the ministry remained unanswered at press time. The disposal of solid waste generated on a daily basis has become a major environmental
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