Indian roads: Bad bitumen, broken roads

Hyderabad: Indian roads end up ridden with potholes after the lightest spell of rain, and this is because of the amount of cement used by contractors.

A 1-km stretch of road requires 350 kg of cement and bitumen of the M-30 or M-35 grade. However, contractors use only half that quantity of cement and M-15 grade bitumen; the rest they make up with fly ash. This makes for a weak road which is susceptible to breaking, resulting in potholes. Despite repeated warnings against the adulteration of road mix, nothing seems to have changed. 

The owner of an RMC plant says, “The quality of bitumen should be maintained at M-30 or M-35 and the cement content should be around 350 kg. However, contractors reduce the quality and the quantity of each of the components in the mixture. Assistant engineers do not conduct quality tests while laying the roads, and the final coat test, where a piece of the road is cut and tested for strength, is not done. Thus a majority of the roads break after a single spell of rain.” 

He adds that contractors replace cement with fly ash, which is the product that is left behind after coal has been burnt. It can be purchased from thermal power plants at around 70 to 90 paise per kg, while cement costs Rs 6 per kg.