Bihar govt, National Jute Board and IJMA raise awareness on use of Jute Geotextile for roads in state

 

The need of jute geotextile and its efficiency in the protection of banks and beds of waterways, strengthening of roads, stabilization of embankments, management of slopes, consolidation of soft soil and other soil related engineering applications were discussed and deliberated.

Distinguished members and esteemed delegates who attended and shared their views at the workshop were Vinay Kumar, Secretary, Rural Works Department, Government of Bihar, Subrata Gupta, Jute Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Subhakriti Majumdar, Director General, Indian Jute Mills Association, T. Sanyal, Chief Consultant, National Jute Board, and   A. K. Khastagir, Project Manager, National Jute Board and  P. K. Choudhury, Principal Technologist, Indian Jute Industries Research Association (IJIRA), Rumki Saha, Technical Officer, IJIRA and Saurabh Ganguly, Jute Geotextiles Marketing Head, IJMA.

Although the industry’s chief production area is packaging but this innovative workshop also showcased how best jute can be put into use widely in building rural infrastructure in Bihar.

“We are overwhelmed by the positive response from the Government of Bihar through the interest shown towards the workshop on Jute Geotextile (JGT). With more than 100 civil engineers attending this workshop shows that innovation and efficiency of the technology of using jute geotextile has earned significant support in Bihar,"  Subhakriti Majumdar, Director General, Indian Jute Mills Association.

"The Jute industry also urges the government to expedite the use of jute geo-textiles in at least 15% of the road construction undertaken by the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana programme, as using this product in about 200 projects across India has been found to be beneficial and cost effective in road construction, river bank protection as well as hill slope stabilization. We hope that the Government of Bihar will take cognizance of the proper use of jute geotextile and implement it in rural infrastructure," he said.

JGT can be tailor-made to suit site-specific technical requirements. It is absolutely environment-friendly and price wise cheapest among all varieties of geotextiles available in India at present.

Extensive studies with over 200 field applications (in road construction, river bank construction, slope management and Railways) have demonstrated the effectiveness of JGT in strengthening road sub-grade, soil erosion control of river banks and superficial soil control of all types of slopes of hills, roads, railways and flood embankments.

USA and European countries have also used JGT for slope stabilization. Indian Roads Congress (IRC) has recommended the use of JGT. Bureau of Indian Standards, Control of Erosion of Banks and Waterways and The Research Design and Standards Organization of the Ministry of Railways have also indicated the suitability of JGT over various applications.

Jute geotextile scores over other materials because of its eco-friendliness, water absorption capacity, drapability and price competitiveness. With more than 45 lakh farming families and 3.5 lakh workers engaged with the jute industry which is mainly concentrated in the eastern part of India, jute geotextile if implemented across different projects in rural and urban India will prove to be an alternative solution to the erstwhile flourishing industry of India.