The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued guidelines to promote the use of urban solid waste and inert materials in national highway construction, aiming for more sustainable practices. The move seeks to reduce reliance on soil excavated from agricultural fields, while addressing the environmental challenge posed by solid waste disposal in urban areas.
MoRTH cited the successful use of inert materials in embankments for pilot projects like the DND Sohna spur of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway. An estimated 10,000 hectares of land are currently locked in dumpsites across India, with approximately 170 million tonnes of waste accumulated across 2,304 dump sites. This waste can be bio-remediated to provide inert material for road embankments. Contractors working on highway projects will now be required to explore the use of local landfill waste and collaborate with municipal corporations to source inert materials for construction.