Punjab mulls use of eco-friendly cold mix for all-weather road carpeting

With an aim to carry carpeting of roads during all seasons, public works department in Punjab is mulling to use cold mix of bitumen by replacing use of hot mix

With an aim to carry carpeting of roads during all seasons, public works department (PWD) in Punjab is mulling to use cold mix of bitumen by replacing use of hot mix.

The central government is also pushing states to start finding options to carpeting of roads using cold mix. (HT File Photo)

A team led by chief engineer Punjab PWD Jyoti Arora on Friday and Saturday visited Rajgarh of Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh to study the roads built by the hilly state using cold mix.

Punjab is pushing for the cold mix due to two reasons, mainly because carpeting of roads using hot mix is not possible in winters as it needs high temperature to get settled on roads and second cold mix is environment friendly as carbon emissions while preparing the hot mix is very high.

“Himachal has successfully built roads more than 700 km in past couple of years using cold mix. Even Orissa state has led by example. We have taken samples of the roads and have talked to the local PWD officials to check the feasibility of using cold mix which can be used to carpet roads even if the temperature is 7-degrees Celsius,” an engineer of Punjab PWD who visited Rajgarh said.

Principal secretary PWD, Neelkanth is said to be pushing the idea of using cold mix citing that Punjab carpeting almost goes negligible during winters, a senior department official said. The team that visited Himachal is likely submit the report by next week.

With the demand of the cold mix increasing, state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Indian Oil Corporation has launched special brands of the cold mix in past few years. “State owned companies promoting cold mix claim that while using it the emission of the dust, carbon dioxide and Sulphur Dioxide is 50% less as compared to the hot mix. We will submit a detailed report,” said a PWD official.

It is learnt that the central government is also pushing states to start finding options to carpeting of roads using cold mix.