Coir geotextiles, a permeable fabric, natural, strong, highly durable, resistant to rots, moulds and moisture, and free from any microbial attack, has finally been accepted as a good material for rural road construction. The decision opens up a huge market potential for coir geotextiles in the country and will be a boon to the COVID-19 hit coir industry.

Coir geotextiles will be used for construction of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)-III, says a communication from the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency under the Union ministry of rural development, Government of India.

"This is a very significant development as we have now been successful in deploying coir geotextile in road construction. The decision will give a big boost to the coir industry especially in these difficult times of COVID-19 pandemic," said Nitin Gadkari, minister of MSME and road transport & highways, who has been behind the move to explore alternative usage of coir fibre.

As per the PMGSY new technology guidelines for road construction, 15 per cent length in each batch of proposals, is to be constructed using new technologies. Out of this 5 per cent roads are to be constructed using Indian Road Congress (IRC) accredited technology. The IRC has now accredited coir geotextiles for construction of rural roads.

As per these instructions, 5 per cent length of the rural roads under PMGSY-III will be constructed using coir geotextiles. Accordingly, 164 km of road will be constructed using coir geotextiles in Andhra Pradesh, 151 km in Gujarat, 71 km in Kerala, 328 km in Maharashtra, 470 km in Odisha, 369 km in Tamil Nadu and 121 km in Telangana. Thus, 1,674 km road will be constructed using coir geotextiles in 7 states, for which there will be a requirement of 1 crore sq metres of coir geotextiles, estimated cost of which would come to ₹70 crore.