India’s first Six Lane Steel Slag based Road Connecting NH-6 to Hazira Port has been constructed

Steel Slag is generated as a solid waste during steel production. For every tonne of steel production around 180 – 200 kg of steel slag is generated in the integrated steel plants, which amounts to around 15 million tonnes steel slag generation  annually.

Ministry of Steel has funded a R&D project on “Development of Design Guidelines and Specifications for utilization of steel slag in road construction” being pursued by CSIR-CRRI in association with the steel industry. Under this R&D project, India’s first six lane steel slag based road connecting NH-6 to Hazira port was constructed in May, 2022 at Surat Hazira using processed steel slag aggregates as substitute of natural aggregates in all layers of bituminous pavement. In this 1 km long test section, processed Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)/ CONARC slag from Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) steel plant at Hazira has been used.

The draft guidelines for construction of steel slag based roads, developed as part of the aforementioned R&D project, prepared by CSIR-CRRI, has been shared with the Indian Road Congress and Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. Upon finalisation of the said Guidelines, the road making agencies would be at liberty to use the processed steel slag based on techno-economic feasibility.