NHAI plans to use solid waste for construction of Delhi-Meerut expressway

NHAI is planning to use solid waste from the Ghazipur landfill site in East Delhi for the construction of the Delhi-Meerut expressway. Reportedly, the Standing Committee of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has approved the proposal. Initially, 70-80 per cent of the waste will be used in the construction of the Delhi-Meerut expressway and will later be used for city roads. As a part of the collaboration between NHAI and the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), the former will install a unit at the site to segregate and process the garbage which will then be mixed with bitumen for making the road. In June 2016, the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) validated the use of municipal solid waste (MSW) for the construction of highways. NHAI had entrusted the assignment of technically verifying whether solid waste material generated from municipal/city waste can be utilised for highway construction jointly to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and CRRI. The CSIR and CRRI conducted a study by collecting 70 tonnes of MSW (aged 5-15 years) from different parts of the Ghazipur landfill site of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.