Close to 96.59 km of road in Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu has been constructed using coir geo-textiles as on July 28. The material is used for improvement of sub-grade soil strength in road pavements and stabilisation of side slopes. About 311.29 km of road construction using this material has also been sanctioned.

The Indian Road Congress (IRC) has accredited the use of coir geo-textiles in construction of roads, union minister of state for rural development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti recently said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

In order to encourage locally available materials and use of green technologies, guidelines were issued by the ministry of rural development in May 2013, wherein the state governments are required to propose minimum 15 per cent of total length of annual proposals under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) under new technologies including coir geo-textiles.

The State of Art Report published by the IRC HRB SR No. 21-2012 said that coir and jute technologies have been proved to be effective in protection of slopes. In the preliminary observations by the National Quality Monitors (NQMs), these roads were found to be performing well. It has also been found that by improving the strength of the sub-grade soil the coir geo-textile results in marginal reduction in the thickness of the granular sub-base (GSB) layer, thus reducing costs.

Cost of a road depends on the Schedule of Rates (SoR) of the state and local conditions. For those areas where coir is locally available, use of coir geo-textiles in road pavements is economical compared to the traditional methods of soil stabilisation, especially when traditional material may not be available locally.