Scientists and professors from several reputed institutes such as IITs, CSIR and MNIT have offered services to the stone waste industry budding in Rajasthan. Speaking at a virtual workshop by Centre for Development of Stones (CDOS) Rajasthan, the experts shared knowledge on several products research and developed at their institutes using stone waste as a major ingredient. Rajasthan is the largest producer of stones in India and thus generates huge volumes of stone dust and slurry, conventionally dumped as waste, the slurry and dust recently are gaining application as an industrial raw material for construction material and m-sand.
The slurry is diverse in properties on basis of its source stone is being used in tiles, construction blocks, cement and alternate to river sand. In Rajasthan, the emerging industry consumes nearly 4 metric tonnes of stone slurry each day, which is a little over 10 percent of that being generated. Rajasthan government through its various agencies has been supporting research in the field to increase its usage.
Chief guest at the workshop, Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) Chairperson Smt. Veenu Gupta expressed state government’s interest in development of the slurry based industries and said that the department is eager to support further research in the sector.
The workshop on ‘Gainful Utilisation of Stone Waste and Slurry’ was organised by CDOS in association with the Rajasthan Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO), RSPCB and Malviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur. The workshop held on Friday afternoon extended the entrepreneurs to interact with the experts and senior government officials. More than 125 experts, officials and industry representatives participated in the workshop.
Addressing the workshop, Secretary Industries GoR and MD RIICO Shri. Ashutosh AT Pednekar said that while judicious disposal of waste is crucial for environment, there is also an opportunity in monetizing the waste.
Experts to present their research at the workshop included Chief Scientist of CSIR-AMPRI Bhopal, Dr. Asokan Pappu; Senior Principal Scientist CSIR-CBRI, Roorkee, Dr Rajni Lakhani; Dr. Ravindra Nagar, Professor MNIT; Dr Shashank Bishnoi, Associate Professor IIT Delhi; DR Sandeep Chaudhary, Professor IIT Indore; Dr Pawan Kalla, Associate Professor MNIT; Dr Vijay Singhal, Chief Environment Engineer RSPCB and Shri Amol Sinha General Manager (products) Terex India.
CDOS is an agency promoted by government of Rajasthan and RIICO for development of the stone sector in state. The workshop was in direction to promote the use of stone slurry as an industrial raw material and on the occasion Vice Chairman of CDOS Shri Ashok Kumar Dhoot shared insights on issues related to Stone industry and Slurry while the workshop was hosted by CDOS CEO Shri. Mukul Rastogi.