The civic body tried out a new eco-friendly substance to fill a pothole in Dadar on Saturday. MiD DAY checked the spot 48 hours later to gauge the efficacy of the material used to seal the crater
The civic body tried out a new eco-friendly substance to fill a pothole in Dadar on Saturday. MiD DAY checked the spot 48 hours later to gauge the efficacy of the material used to seal the crater
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With civilians threatening to make the civic authorities pay if it fails to repair the city's disastrous pothole-ridden streets, BMC bigwigs are desperately seeking remedies.
MiD DAY checked the crater intermittently, see if the substance was effective in holding the cracked road together.
Workers and BMC officials congregated at the Keshavsuth Udan Bridge, near the Dadar Railway Station and the chosen crater, 2 square metre wide and 60 mm deep, was then filled with the geopolymer.
MiD DAY visited the spot on Sunday afternoon to see if the pothole had caved in. Even after a drizzle, however, it remained intact with no visible cracks or dents appearing on the surface.
MiD DAY revisited the spot last night, exactly 48 hours since the work had been done, and was pleasantly surprised to find that there were no tell-tale signs of the pothole's return. The spot still looked as good as new.
Officialspeak
A BMC official said, on condition of anonymity, "The mix was filled in, and after an hour, traffic was allowed on the stretch. A truck was the first vehicle to drive over it.
A meeting will be held shortly, between the additional municipal commissioner and the contractors to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using the material."
Susheil Kadam, the environmentalist who recommended the substance to the BMC's chief engineer for roads, was present at the spot on Saturday, accompanied by the civic body's Standing Committee Chairperson Rahul Shewale.
Shewale said, "We are trying to use advanced technologies for roads in the city, and the geopolymer was one such attempt. The material seemed intact even after the rains on Sunday. We will decide our next step on Tuesday."
Eco-friendly
The material has been obtained from a Chennai-based company, Aashram Eco Cement. It does not contain any cement, and yet dries quickly.
Polymers are extracted from fly ash and slag, which are byproducts of the iron industry.
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After this, the substance is mixed with a suitable amount of water and the resulting blend is used to fill in the pothole.
The geopolymer is not like bitumen, which doesn't respond well to water, causing potholes to cave in during the rains.
Rs 70,000
The cost of filling up the pothole in Dadar, as 220 kilograms of geopolymer have been used, at Rs 300-350 per kg
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