India builds first cement concrete steel slag road

India’s first cement concrete steel slag road is currently under construction on National Highway 66, around 50km outside Mumbai. The 1km stretch of road, which is located near JSW Cement’s plant in Dolvi, Maharashtra, is being built using steel slag along with cement slag, according to India Today.

The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), two of the bodies behind the project, say that 200kg of steel slag is generated for every 1t of steel produced. India currently produces 19Mt of steel slag each year with 140Mt of slag lying unused around the country. By 2030, India could be generating 60Mt of steel slag each year. 

“For this road, processed steel slag aggregate and cement slag was provided by JSW from their plant. So, there is no natural aggregate used to make this road. So the construction cost of this road is less and it's more durable than a cement concrete road made of natural aggregate. By using this technology, we can reduce the impact on air, land and water,” said Satish Pandey, principal scientist at CSIR-CRRI and inventor of steel slag road technology.

Censors have been installed in the road to collect data and monitor its performance. This will then be used to improve the methodology of making the road in other locations. The National High Authority of India (NHAI) is already looking to this technology to build thousands of kilometres of roads under Bharatmala Pariyojana, an ecosystem of road development which includes tunnels, bridges, elevated corridors, flyovers, overpass, interchanges, bypasses and ring roads to provide the shortest and least congested connectivity to multiple places, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, and then cover the entire string of Himalayan territories.

“In this, there are constant environmental challenges like not finding queries and shortage of material to be used in roads. In this initiative with CRRI, we are trying to replace natural aggregate by using waste material in the steel industry. So far, results have been good, and we are looking forwards to replicate this technology on other roads,” said Mr A Shrivastava, NHAI Regional Officer (Mumbai).