Bengaluru’s 1st Sustainable Road Made with over 3,000 KG of Recycled Plastic

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Bengaluru’s First Sustainable Road Made with over 3,000 KG of Recycled Plastic Built in the City’s IT Hotspot

The initiative by Brookfield Properties will reduce travel time between Ecoworld and Outer Ring Road by 65%, positively impacting over 1,00,000 users

Brookfield Properties revamps the roundabout connecting Ecoworld Central Avenue and the Outer Ring Road (ORR) by constructing the Bengaluru’s most sustainable roadway using 3000KG of recycled plastic. The initiative is part of a larger infrastructural upgrade plan for the area led by Brookfield Properties in partnership with IBI - A Canada based architecture, engineering, planning, and technology firm, BBMP - Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Bengaluru Traffic Police.

The new road is built using a first-of-its-kind solution 'GridMats,' a patented method for building roads and pavements made entirely of recycled plastic waste. This approach consumes 30% less water, 74% less carbon footprint and is 20%-25% cheaper than traditional concrete roads. The project has been executed by PotHoleRaja, an organization specializing in building sustainable roads from recycled plastic.This road upgrade has resulted in a 65% reduction in travel time.

Acquired in 2020,Ecoworld is a marquee asset in Brookfield Properties’ India portfolio and is South Asia’s first True zero-waste Commercial Office Campus, offering over 7.7 million square feet of leasable area with a strong tenant roster of leading multinational companies. The project hosts over 77,000 employees and houses over 2,500 residential units generating approximately 1,00,000 footfalls daily.

Expressing his views on the overall initiative, Mr. Shantanu Chakraborty, Executive Vice President & Regional Head of South India, and Brookfield Properties said, " At Brookfield Properties, we care for our communities. This revamp will ease the commute on Ecoworld Road resulting in a reduction in travel time. Made using the grid mat technology deploying 100% recyclable plastic waste, also ensures that the road is sustainable. With this infrastructure upgrade, employees working at Ecoworld, residents and employees of nearby business parks will spend less time commuting and will further help in reducing the carbon footprint.”

Adding to it Mr. Sourabh Kumar, Director, PotHoleRaja said, "With PotholeRaja GridMats, the intent is to use plastic waste to make long-lasting and sustainable roads/pavements. Unlike traditional roads, we do not use steel reinforcements. The thickness of our pavements is 5 times lesser than traditional concrete roads, use almost 80% lesser concrete and emit 80% lesser carbon. I am glad that we got an opportunity to work with Brookfield Properties on one of the most demanding road stretches helping decongest the traffic”.

"With the revamping of the under the bridge at the Ecoworld Junction, the traffic build-up has reduced significantly also easing the pressure on traffic management authorities. We are thankful to Brookfield Properties for spearheading this initiative for the community”, said Shri. Thippeswamy, Asst. Commissioner of Police (Traffic), K R Puram. 

As a socially responsible organization, with initiatives that promote sustainability across its value chain, Brookfield Properties aims to deliver on its sustainability goals and reach its Net Zero commitment by 2050 or sooner.

About Brookfield Properties:

Brookfield Properties is a leading global developer and operator of high-quality real estate assets. The company is active in nearly all real estate sectors, including office, retail, multifamily, hospitality and logistics, operating more than 800 properties and over 390 million square feet of real estate in gateway markets on behalf of Brookfield Asset Management, one of the largest asset managers in the world. With a focus on sustainability, a commitment to excellence and the drive for relentless innovation in the planning, development and management of buildings and their surroundings, Brookfield Properties is reimagining real estate from the ground up.

In India, Brookfield Properties manages 50 million sq. ft. of high-quality assets in some of the key gateway markets, 37 million sq. ft. of this is already operational. It Includes Candor TechSpace in Gurugram, Noida and Kolkata, Powai Business District, Waterstones, and Equinox in Mumbai and recently acquired office campuses in Southern India and CoWrks, the Co-working and Flexi office business across India.

Social Venture PotHoleRaja® Builds a Connecting Road From 100% Recycled Plastic Waste

PotHoleRaja’s patented GridMats® have been used to build the connecting road

GridMats® are a revolutionary pavement solution that’s eco-friendly, durable and crafted entirely from 100% recycled plastic waste

PotHoleRaja®, a social venture that is on a mission to fix Indian roads, has laid down a new concrete road connecting RMZ Ecoworld and the outer ring road to ease the traffic congestion in the area. This project has been undertaken under a partnership between PotHoleRaja®, ORR companies and BBMP.

The new road has been constructed using a first-of-its-kind solution by PotHoleRaja called ‘GridMats®’. GridMats® is a revolutionary patented product that’s eco-friendly, durable and crafted entirely from 100% recycled plastic waste to construct pavements/roads . Made from recycled polypropylene, GridMats® are placed above the bedding layer and packed with different filling options, creating a permanent, flat, high-quality surface in less than half the time, and at 20%-25% cheaper the cost.

Connecting Road by PotHoleRaja

Commenting on the project, Sourabh Kumar, Director, PotHoleRaja®, says “Currently, commuters exiting ecoworld to go towards Marathahalli have to take a big U turn at Bellandur and the ones who are entering ecoworld from outer ring road face a lot of inconvenience due to the traffic pile up in the area. This pile up is primarily due to commuters having to take a u-turn in a congested junction. A well designed connecting road directly to ecoworld will cut down on commuting time to a great extent.”

“In this project, through our GridMats®, we have used around 3000 kg of plastic waste in building this road. It consumes 30% less water than traditional concrete roads and it does not require any steel reinforcement. Traditional concrete road technology would have emitted 46.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions to complete this construction, however our GridMats produce only 11.9 tonnes—a significant reduction when compared to the conventional method. We have cut down on close to 34.6 tonnes of CO2e (Carbon Dioxide equivalent emissions) which is the equivalent of emissions produced by driving a car for 1,38,600 km”, Sourabh adds.

About PotHoleRaja®

PotHoleRaja® has grown from doing small pothole fixing drives and CSR interventions, to making model roads/junctions and today working with some of the biggest corporations and organisations in the country to maintain the roads of entire city using all weatherproof automated machines & construction of roads from recycled plastic waste. They’ve mended more than 20000+ potholes across 30+ cities, operations in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, Jamshedpur and more.

Reliance Industries approaches NHAI for Waste Plastic-to-Road Technology

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance industries has approached National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for offering its 'waste plastic-to-road' technology that uses end-of-life plastic for road construction.

The company has already piloted few projects and has constructed nearly 40 km road by mixing 50 tonne of end-of-life plastic waste with bitumen at it's Nagothane manufacturing site in Raigad district.

"It took us some 14-18 months to develop this mechanism where we can use the end-of-life waste plastic like packaging of snacks and flimsy polyethylene bags, among others, in road construction.

"We are in talks with the NHAI to share our experience and to help the use of end-of-life plastic for road construction," company's COO Petrochemicals Business Vipul Shah told reporters.

Along with NHAI, RIL is also in talks with state governments and local bodies across the country for offering its technology, he said.

Explaining the benefits of the usage of this waste plastic, Shah said, "it not only ensures sustainable utilisation of plastic but is also financially viable".

Our experience showed that 1 km of road uses 1 mt of waste plastic and can save nearly Rs 1 lakh as it can be utilised as a substitute to bitumen to the extent of 8-10 per cent. So, roughly we saved Rs 40 lakh. Besides, this plastic also enhances the quality of roads, he said.

He said the roads made using this plastic were completed in two months and sustained the torrential rains of last year without any erosion.

"NHAI is expected to construct 10,000 km of roads with average four lanes in FY2021, which is around 40,000 km of roads that can use nearly 40,000 mt of waste plastics. Besides, other state authorities and local bodies are expected to construct 23,000 km of around four lane roads.

"This is a good 86,000 mt of waste plastic," RIL Head business development sustainable solutions KRS Narayan said.

He however added that the biggest challenge in this process is collection and segregation of this waste plastic, a process know-how that we can offer.

"We have still not decided about the commercial model for this. Going forward, we may consider developing products that could be used directly in road construction. But this will happen once we see the market for this business," Shah added. PTI PSK