The Punjab government is likely to use an environment friendly cold recycling machine for the Rs.600-crore road project on the Bhawanigarh-Talwandi Sabo stretch spanning a length of 204 km. An official from the PWD (B&R) stated that the machine recycles construction material to relay existing roads with only bitumen and water being used to construct the road as other material is obtained from the existing broken roads.
The Rs.12-crore machine takes about one-fourth of the time taken to lay a road of that of the conventional method, he said. He further stated that the project has been awarded to a Gujarat-based contractor, Patel Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, in December 2012 with a concession period of 10 years, which includes maintenance. The scope includes civil and construction activities.
It is also learnt that the environment friendly machine would minimise the transportation cost of construction material besides saving fuel and labour. According to the PWD official, the machine has constructed a 5-km stretch on Dhanaula-Bhikhi road so far. He also stated that during the first year of contract, the machine would be used to construct 20-km road from Mansa chowk to Kotshamir, 10 km stretch from Bhawanigarh to Mehlan chowk and 25 km stretch from Dhanaula to Bhikhi.
The PWD would widen the 106-km stretch from Bhawanigarh to Kotshamir from 7m to 10m and of the Mansa-Talwandi Sabo from 5m to 10m. The road from Mansa chowk to Mansa city would be a four-laned and is expected to be ready by 2014. The rest of the stretches would be constructed in intervals.
When Projectmonitor contacted Patel Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd on the development of the project the company denied giving any information on the project. From the website of the company Projectmonitor, learnt that the Government of Punjab signed an agreement with the company for the World Bank aided project based on OPRC Model, a first of its kind in India on December 10, 2012.
