Noida starts building 2.5-km link road to Delhi using plastic waste

The Noida authority has started building a 2.5-km stretch of Delhi-Noida Link road by using plastic waste collected from various city areas, officials said on Friday. The road is being constructed from Sector 14A to Film City in Sector 16A under a pilot project by the authority. The development comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for making cities free of plastic.

The authority is also carrying out a campaign to make Noida a plastic-free city, where single-use plastic is prohibited in order to make the city pollution free.

“We will reuse the plastic waste in road construction. The authority shall be trying to set up a plant to generate shredded plastic for construction use in near future. We are also tying up with NGOs/ cement manufacturers to recycle plastic waste,” Ritu Maheshwari, authority’s chief executive officer, said.

Another Noida authority official, who is not authorised to speak to media, said that the authority will use eight tonnes of plastic waste in construction of two lanes of the said stretch. “In the beginning, we have started resurfacing 2.5-km stretch of Delhi-Noida Link road. Later, we will use the plastic waste in resurfacing other roads,” the officials said.

The authority has started a campaign — ‘Plastic-free Noida’ — that will run from September 11 to October 27. Under this campaign, it has encouraged general public to join hands with the health department and start collecting plastic waste littered on roads or vacant spaces and hand it over to the authority. The authority staff is also collecting the plastic waste.

“We will hand it over to cement companies, NGOs, and reuse it in road construction,” said Maheshwari.

The authority does not have any estimate of plastic waste it will be able to collect during this campaign. Apart from this, the authority has also acting tough against those who are found using the single-use plastic bags.

On July 15 last year, the state government had enforced a ban on plastic use across all cities. The Uttar Pradesh Plastic and other Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Regulation of Use and Disposal) Act, 2000, was amended and an ordinance was issued.

According to the ordinance, whoever uses in contravention or abets the use in contravention of Section 7 (of the ordinance) shall be punished. In the event of the first conviction with imprisonment under the term, which may extend to one month or with the fine that shall not be less than Rs 1,000 and may extend up to Rs 10,000; and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment for a term that may extend to six months or with the fine not less than Rs 5,000 and may extend to Rs 25,000.

First Published: Sep 14, 2019 12:51 IST