Union minister for Road Transport and Highways Kamal Nath has said that the government may consider using cement for construction of expressways. The ministry has laid out plans to construct over 18,000 km greenfield expressways by 2032.

Nath said “It would be appropriate to look at building expressways with cement concrete as these will be greenfield projects.” The minister was speaking at a seminar organized by CII titled ‘Concrete Highway Projects’.

The minister outlined a possible use of concrete on roads stretches which are used heavily and further said that the roads which are already build with bitumen will not be turned into cement roads.

Sumit Banerjee, chairman of CII cement industry pitching for the cement expressways said that only 40% of the total 71,000 km of bitumen highways and expressways conformed to quality standards. He also said that the life cycle of concrete roads is much longer at about 50 years while it also helps to save 15% in fuel consumption.

Nath expressed doubts over the current cement capacity of the country to cater to the construction of highways and expressways if the ministry decides to make use of concrete heavily.

About 10% of the highways covered under the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) are already made of concrete highways. The Road and transport secretary however said the cement industry did not offer acceptable price and quality of cement which made it difficult for the concrete projects to be implemented in an adequate manner.

Without giving much detail about the proposed amendments of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 the minister said that he has called a meeting of all state transport ministers next month for the purpose. The Act under its provisions included the permissible speed and truck loads on highways.