Building a robust road infrastructure with faster pace on Indo-China border is one of the topmost priority areas of the Government of India to improve operational capacity of our defence forces. Construction and maintenance of high-altitude bituminous roads on China Border in state of Arunachal Pradesh under low and sub-zero temperature conditions was always a challenging task to India’s premier road construction agency Border Road Organization. Majority of bituminous road construction work’s either got halt up or delayed when the winter months roll in, as the production of hot bituminous mix for road construction requires increased heating time at elevated temp ranges i.e160 to 170 0 Cin hot mix plant. Besides that, bituminous mix to be laid and compacted is required to be sufficiently hot at paving site for effective compaction to achieve desired durability and performance. On hill roads during subzero temp transportation of bituminous mix from Hot Mix plant to project site require increase haulage time which causes rapid cooling off the bituminous mix before reaching to paving site, thus rendering the mix inferior for paving and rolling.
To address all these challenges Border Road Organization, project VARTAK, Arunachal Pradesh has successfully utilized an indigenous road construction technology “REJUPAVE” developed by India’s oldest and premier road research organization CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CSIR-CRRI), Ministry of Science and Technology to construct high altitude bituminous roads at low and sub-zero temperature conditions.
This technology is recently successfully implemented by BRO to build bituminous road sections at World’s Highest Sela Road Tunnel and LGG-Damteng-Yangste (LDY Road) road section near China border at State of Arunachal Pradesh.
Construction of road section at SELA Tunnel using REJUPAVE Technology Additional Director General (EAST), BRO, PKH Singh, VSM informed that the “REJUPAVE Technology has been successfully utilized by BRO under the technological guidance and supervision of CSIR-CRRI to produce low temperature bituminous mixes for construction of bituminous roads at Sela tunnel and LDY road site at 14000 ft and 18000 ft altitude respectively. This technology brings down the production and rolling temp of bituminous mixes by 30 to 400 C with negligible heat loss in bituminous mix during transit, despite long haulage time amid snow fall. Technology will increase the working window of Road Construction Companies of BRO thus help us to build robust road network with faster pace under challenging conditions”.
CSIR-CRRI Team with BRO team at LDY Road section Satish Pandey, Principal Scientist CSIR-CRRI and inventor of REJUPAVE informed that the REJUAPAVE asphalt modifier is a biooil based product which significantly lower the heating requirement of bituminous mixes besides preserving the bituminous mix temperature during transit. Uses of REJUPAVE technology will not only help BRO to construct roads at subzero temperature but also bring down the greenhouse gas emissions in the pristine eco-sensitive mountainous environment of Arunachal Pradesh. According to him the road built using REJUPAE asphalt modifier in cold climatic regions will have improved long term durability and better resistance to thermal cracking under low temperature conditions. He further informed that the M/s Verma Industries, industrial partner and licensee of CSIR-CRRI technology, is carrying out the commercial production of REJUPAVE for field implementation on pan India basis.
Source: Lieutenant Colonel Mahendra Singh Rawat, Defence PRO Guwahati
Report- Pratyusha Mukherjee
