Now, PWD to use slag in building roads.

The Public Works Department (PWD) has permitted the use of slag, a by-product of iron ore smelting by steel plants, in construction of roads. Slag will be first used in Bellary district where mega steel plants are located.

Faced with acute shortage of natural sand, the PWD has been looking for alternatives; one of them being blast furnace slag, a non-metallic material produced when ore is melted.

An expensive by-product resembling natural sand, slag is not commonly used in construction in India, unlike in many advanced countries.

Steel plants in Karnataka produce the material in bulk and are ready to offer it free of cost. Jindal Steel Limited of Torangal in Bellary district is one of them.

The PWD expects contractors to lift slag for road works. But it has not yet given permission for use of slag in construction of buildings.

Official sources said that slag deposits had taken up too much space at steel plants and the companies were looking for an easy way of clearing it.


DECCAN HERALD