Indian Road Congress (IRC), India’s main national body for setting standards for construction of roads and highways, has proposed to set up a committee to recommend alternatives to steel and cement in construction and new standards for each of these alternatives, a government official said on Wednesday, March 24.
The official said that the IRC move comes in the wake of Indian roads and highways minister Nitin Gadkari’s call to “teach cement and steel producers a lesson for cartelizing and increasing prices unreasonably”, and the need to find alternatives to steel and cement in road construction, which would ultimately force steel and cement producers to rein in prices.
The IRC committee is expected to consider a host of alternatives to steel and cement like coir geotextiles, synthetic fibre and plastic waste, and, following approval of these by the committee, standards will be evolved for each of these alternative materials, the official said.