'Replace wood with bamboo, save 7,000 cr'

New Delhi, Oct 28: Government Departments can save nearly Rs 7,000 crore per year if articles made of bamboo and jute waste take place of wood and wooden products, an industry body said.

Wood and wooden items can easily be replaced by products made out of bamboo and jute wastes, forming a composite technology supported by Nanotech and save up to Rs 7,000 crore per annum as their material costs would not exceed beyond Rs 3,000 crore for various government departments, the Paper brought out by the ASSOCHAM on 'Waste to Wealth through Innovative Technologies' says.

The findings further highlighted that besides CPWD, PWD, Railways and Defence, National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), para military services such as BSF, ITBP, and Coast Guards all put together buy Rs 10,000 crore of wood and wooden products per annum.

Central Public Works Departments spends Rs 2,000 crore on procurement of wood and wooden products like doors, windows, ventilators, ceiling, partition, flooring and different kind of pre-fabricated shelters and corrugated roofing sheets per annum, ASSOCHAM President Venugopal N Dhoot said.

The state's PWD's estimated purchases of above products is estimated at Rs 3,000 crore as against railways, defence and military engineering services purchases of wood products that are respectively estimated at Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 1,000 crore, Mr Dhoot added.

He said NBCC purchases of wood and wooden products per annum works out to be Rs 1,000 crore and BSF, ITBP and Coast Guards also have the requirement of a huge quantity of various types of pre-fabricated shelters, including IGLOO' shaped shelters and toilet blocks amounts to more than Rs 1,000 crore per annum.

UNI