Workshop to popularise Jute-Geotextiles

Kolkata, Apr 5 (UNI) An international workshop discussing potential and prospect of jute based industry today adopted a four million dollars project on ''Development and Application of Potentially Important Jute Geotextile'', financed partly by Common Fund for Commodities, Amsterdam, and Government of India.

The two-day workshop on Jute Geo-Textiles, that began today, is exploring ways and means to develop and popularise jute based products, which are bio-degradable and friendly to nature, said Jute Commissoner, Ministry of Textiles, Binod Kispotta.

He said of the four million dollar project, the CFC would bear 2.5 million dollars, while the Centre will give the rest. It will design particular types of jute geo-textile (JGT) in keeping with the site-specific parameters as well as marketability, quality assurance, production and standardisation.

Geotextiles (GTS) are engineered textile materials within the generic group of technical textile, now in extensive use all over the world. The GTS improves the performance of the soil in which they are laid. JGTs are variant of geotextiles made from natural fibres, capable of functioning as efficiently as their synthetic counterparts and when placed in or on soil they help in improving its performace against extraneous loads by acting as a change-agent the catalyst.

The workshop, being jointly organised by Interanationl Jute Study Group (IJSG) and Jute Manufacturers Development Council (JMDC) and financed by the Common Fund for Commodities, would aggregate the opinions and suggestions of a braod range of experts and stakeholders so as to develop the final design of such a project.

CFC's senior Project Manager Sietse van der Werff, who is also participating in the workshop, would visit some of the jute related production facilities in the city.

Mr Kispotta said they would approach ten states in the country to adopt GTS technology for road building as reports after using this technology in mountain slopes and higher reaches were favourable as this solidified structure more than synthetic materials, now used at random, which is a non-degradable agent.

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