BHOPAL: National Level Project Monitor Government of India Bhishma Kumar Chugh said the government should use new technology ‘Whitetopping’ for pothole-free road.
“Whitetopping is widely known to be highly sustainable and economical in nature. With a lifecycle of over 20 years, whitetopping facilitates pothole free roads with minimum repair required. ..With vehicular population increasing on a gradual basis, whitetopping provides a complete solution to India’s poor urban road infrastructure,” said Chug, the former director general, CPWD, ministry of urban development.
This has been one of the main reasons behind the high degree of acceptance by the citizens for the technology, given the holistic benefits on offer, said Chug while addressing mediapersons here on Tuesday.
The Indian Road Congress had approved the technology in the year 2015, but the state and the local government are not following the instructions, he rued.
The ‘topping’ can be done on the bitumen road which helps in increasing the age of the road which could cross 25 years without potholes, he claimed.
What weakens the road: For good strength of road specific temperature while mixing of material and laying has to be ensured. Mixing tar with other material needs to be done at 170 degree Celsius and while laying the road the temperature of material should be 120 degree Celsius, but if it drops to 80 the entire process becomes useless.
The second enemy of the bitumen road is water, but if concrete road is constructed, neither the water nor the temperature will affect the quality of roads.
What is Whitetopping ?
Whitetopping is the covering of an existing asphalt pavement with a layer of Portland cement concrete instead of bituminous concrete. When the roads are concreted the initial cost will be rather high and the longevity of the surface will be more then the bituminous roads ,and they are called as rigid pavement and bituminous roads are called as flexible.
