NEW DELHI, INDIA, January 5, 2003: Use of fly ash in construction laying of roads and reclamation of low lying areas may soon become mandatory as the statutory period of 60 days for raising objections and making suggestions in this regard will soon expire. “Fly ash” is the environmentally hazardous byproduct of coal-burning power plants. The draft fly ash rules were notified last month by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The fly ash rules notified in September 1999 are being amended to make it compulsory for all agencies engaged in construction of buildings within a radius of 100 km — doubled from 50 km earlier — from coal or lignite-based thermal power plants to use fly ash bricks, blocks or tiles, the ministry has said. Though the minimum amount of fly ash to be used at present has been kept at 25 per cent, in due course the new rules require 100 per cent use of fly ash products. HPI adds: Iraivan Temple, located in Kauai, USA, has a monolithic four-foot-thick concrete slab foundation measuring 56 by 117 feet that was constructed using fly ash technology, the first large-scale demonstration of the technology. It was built under the direction of Dr. P. Kumar Mehta of the University of California. Temples in Houston and Chicago are also placing monolithic flyash foundations without reinforcing steel.
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