Pune: India’s first highway constructed using eco-friendly bitumen, a groundbreaking development that has led to significant cost savings of thousands of crores.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated India’s first highway built using bio-bitumen, a sustainable alternative to fossil fuel-based bitumen, on National Highway 44, Nagpur-Mansar Bypass. Bio-bitumen is produced by Praj Industries using raw lignin, a byproduct of the paper industry. The company has developed a technology to blend bio-bitumen with traditional bitumen up to 15%. This innovation has the potential to save India’s foreign exchange up to Rs 4,500 crore. The bio-bitumen was tested by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and was found to be satisfactory. The successful test led to the construction of the Nagpur-Mansar Bypass project. Bitumen is a sticky mixture of hydrocarbons used in road construction, and India imports half of its bitumen, costing around Rs 25,000-30,000 crore annually. The introduction of bio-bitumen offers a sustainable and environment-friendly alternative to traditional bitumen, paving the way for a transformative step towards building sustainable infrastructure in India.