Nitin Gadkari's Waste-Management Push: Centre To Bring In Garbage-To-Roads Policy On Gandhi Jayanti

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Centre is mulling introducing a policy to use garbage in road construction across the country to reduce its burden.

This Gandhi Jayanti, the Centre is planning to launch a new policy aimed at reducing the burden of garbage by using it in the construction of roads. Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways in India, Nitin Gadkari gave the information in an exclusive conversation with ABP News. Gadkari said that the government is working on the policy to be launched on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 this year. He said the government used around 30 lakh tonnes of garbage from the Ghazipur landfill site which led to the lowering of the height of the 'garbage mountain' by seven metres.

He said that plans to make crude oil from plastic and use of glass in cement for construction are also under consideration and concerned bodies have been asked to work and verify the same. He said the same method has been used in road construction in Gujarat's Ahmedabad as well.

"I have been trying this since 2015 but haven't had success otherwise much garbage would have been used in various projects. NHAI is doing it when states will start doing it, people will get rid of garbage," he said.

On rubber waste, he said, "We will prepare powder from rubber waste. Bitumen power is Rs 30,00-50,000 per tonne. We will make Bitument from rubber...cost of Bitument will reduce and quality will get better", he said.

The minister also said that the government has transplanted nearly 68,000 trees some of which are over 100 years old.

 

Gadkari On Biofuel Alliance Formed During G20 Summit

Highlighting the problem of fuel imports, Gadkari said that Indian oil imports will touch the demand worth Rs 25 lakh crore from Rs 16 lakh crore at present which will be a financial burden as well as increase pollution. "We have seen reports that suggest that the average life of a person residing in Delhi is getting reduced by 1-12 years due to pollution," the minister said.

"There is an alternative fuel and biofuel," he said. The minister added that Brazil uses 26 per cent ethanol in its vehicles and has set necessary vehicular standards for the same, adding that farmers in India will soon make aviation fuel.

"We will learn from their good things, and they will from ours," Gadkari said. The Union Minister said that through the biofuel alliance, there will be 'cooperation, coordination and communication', among the G20 nations part of the alliance and various international bodies.