Rejubit: CRRI launches made-in-India agent for recycling old bitumen roads
Once available at scale, this chemical agent will also reduce the demand for new raw materials, a significant portion of which are currently imported
The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) launched Rejubit, a made-in-India rejuvenating agent for restoring and recycling old bitumen roads on Thursday. This agent will reduce the cost of relaying roads by 66% and lower the country’s import burden.
Using this new agent, old road materials can be recycled at one-third of the existing cost using imported additives, Ambika Behl, senior principal scientist at CRRI, told HT.
Once available at scale, this chemical agent will also significantly reduce the demand for new raw materials, a significant portion of which are currently imported, she added.
Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari speaking at the launch said this material will also help India’s ambitious economic goals as India needs to reduce its import bill. “The capacity of our country’s refineries is 50 lakh tons, and our requirement is 95 lakh tons. So, 45 lakh tons of bitumen are imported,” he said.
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Gadkari also emphasised the need for eco-friendly and cost-effective road solutions to support India’s growing infrastructure.
“We need good quality of roads. We want to reduce the cost of construction and improve the quality of road construction. By using different materials, we can do this.”
This rejuvenating agent will be manufactured by Ooms India, a private company that has an India license from CRRI.
Later in the day, during Question Hour in Lok Sabha, Gadkari said that during the last three financial years, 103 instances of action were taken against contractors and concessionaires due to substandard work, poor performance, non-completion, or timeline overruns for national highway projects. The data tabled in Parliament showed that in six cases, the bank guarantee from these contractors was encashed.
Tripura, Maharashtra, and Nagaland fared the worst among the states with 13, 12 and 11 such projects respectively. Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were the other majorly affected states in this respect, with 10 and nine projects each featuring among the 103 that have been flagged by the ministry for delays.
