Waste to Wealth: Surat Gets India’s First Road Made from Steel Waste

Every year, 19 million tonnes of steel waste is produced by steel plants across the country. Most of this waste ends up getting accumulated in landfills. However, a way to give new life to this steel slag has been found and executed.

India’s First Steel Road

A road made of steel waste has been built in the Hazira Industrial Area in Surat, Gujarat, as part of the first such project as part of research. The project to reuse the steel discarded as waste to produce the first steel road of the country is co-sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), with assistance from the Ministry of Steel and Policy Commission, as well as the NITI Aayog. The project is a step in the positive direction for the Waste to Wealth and Clean India campaigns of the Indian government.

The one-kilometre-long experimental project road includes six lanes. It is built entirely of processed steel aggregate and serves as an alternative to traditional materials. The thickness of the road has also been lowered by 30%, according to CSRI. This novel approach is thought to be capable of preventing road damage during the rainy season.

#Steelslag road built with 100 % processed steel slag aggregates in all layers of bituminous roads at Hazira, Surat in collaboration of @CSIRCRRI & @AMNSIndia under the R&D study sponsored by @SteelMinIndia. @NITIAayog @TATASTEEL @jswsteel @RinlVsp @NHAI_Official@CSIR_IND pic.twitter.com/dNHxxdnAZA

— CSIR CRRI (@CSIRCRRI) March 22, 2022

“This 1-kilometre-long road at Hazira Port in Gujarat was earlier in bad shape due to trucks carrying several tons of weight but under one experiment this road was made entirely from steel waste, now more than 1,000 trucks, 18 to 30 every day are passing with tons of weight, but the road remains the same,” CRRI Principal Scientist Satish Pandey said.

With this experiment, the highways and other roads can become stronger and the cost is also reduced by about 30 per cent, Mr Pandey further said.

Waste generated by Steel Plants – Scope for future

Steel factories in India generate 19 million tonnes of steel waste each year, which is expected to rise to 50 million tonnes by 2030, according to one estimate.

“Steel plants have become mountains of steel waste. This is a big threat to the environment, that is why on the instructions of NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Steel gave us a project to use this waste for construction many years ago. And after research, scientists processed steel waste at AMNS Steel Plant in Surat and got the ballast prepared from steel waste,” Santosh M Mundhra, Executive Director, AMNS, said.

Following the success of its first pilot project, the Indian government intends to use steel waste in the construction of motorways in the future to strengthen roads.