After eight months of trial, the Department of Roads (DoR) is confident of using plastic waste to blacktop roads in the country.
The pilot project, a 150-metre stretch in Olakha, blacktopped using mixture of 10 percent plastic and rest, bitumen, has proven successful, the Department of Roads’ Chief Engineer, Chador Gyeltshen says.
“The stretch has no potholes, till date. Driving on the road is also smooth,” said Chador Gyeltshen.
The Chief Engineer said the road required no maintenance in the last eight months.
They will now replicate the technology in four dzongkhags: Paro, Haa, Thimphu and Chhukha. “We will move to other parts of the country slowly.”
He also said this technology can help save Nu 2,80,000 a kilometre.
Even as the department expands the project, they will keep inspecting the trial project in Olakha until 2018.
More than 500 kilograms of shredded plastic was used for the trial project.
A private company based in Thimphu, Green Road had initiated the project.
