SHILLONG, Oct 23 � Assam has agreed in principle to soon apply geo-textile technology, material created from jute, to construct river embankments and also stop soil erosion in some vulnerable areas of the State, Jute National Board of India (NJBI) officials said recently.
T Sanyal, Consultant, NJBI said that officials from Assam has in principle agreed to apply this new technology in lower Assam to build river embankments to stop flooding and also arrest soil erosion. He said that a scheduled meeting with officials from the NJBI and the Assam Government was cancelled earlier this month and the meeting would be held soon to officially adopt the technology.
Sanyal said that the technology would probably be used on a pilot project and if successful, it would be applied in several areas of the State. Assam has been importing foreign technology to strengthen the embankments of the river Brahmaputra.
The geo-textile technology is similar to geo-synthetic technology, but is environmentally friendly. It is used to strengthen the soil with the material laid on the soil and acts as a �catalyst� rather than remaining permanently on the soil and damaging its content like geo-synthetic, the officials said.
The Assam PWD would soon include geo-textile in its Schedule of Rates so that it could be used widely. In fact, geo-textile is being widely used in some parts of the country for road construction and also hill slope embankment construction.
The technology has been approved by different State and Central government agencies. In all, 22 States have approved the technology for its cost effectiveness and environmentally friendly attributes. However, JBI officials said that it has still not caught the imagination of the engineers as it is a new technology.
On the positive side, the Northeast Frontier Railways has approved the technology and has already purchased 80,000 square metres of the material to be laid on hill slope to stop landslide on railway tracks. �We are getting positive response from NF Railways and they would be purchasing more from us,� Sanyal added.
Not just the NF Railways, the Border Road Organisation has already used the technology to build two roads in Assam, one in Meghalaya and several others in Tripura. In fact, the West Bengal Government would soon mandate that geo-textile technology is used in the construction of all rural roads of that State and the material has been included in the schedule of rates in concerned departments.
�Around 170 application of the technology by various State and Central Government agencies in the country has proved to be successful and we are working with the United Nations to get it accredited so that the technology could be sold in the International market,� Sanyal added.
