Issues with fly‐ash and infrastructure waste: A techno‐business solution, Naldehra Building Centre, Faridabad, India

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to qualitatively assess environmental issues concerning fly‐ash, generated from thermal power plants of India. The alternate use of fly‐ash as raw material in the manufacture of pavement bricks and other construction materials is known, but there are few fabrication and assembling units that cater the needs of manufacture of fly‐ash bricks in commercial scale. This paper aims to highlight one such fabrication unit, Naldehra Building Centre (NBC) situated at Faridabad, Haryana, India and the limitations with such entrepreneurship while addressing societal issues of child labour and environmental issues with dispose of fly‐ash.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is largely based on a one‐to‐one meeting the author had with the entrepreneur, Mr Ajay Singh (AS) at his office premises, Faridabad India, in the month of July 2010. The interactions include relevant data collection on the fabrication and assembling business opportunities and global solid waste‐related issues. The discussions were extended with the collection of NBC's machinery brochures, collection of machinery photographs and technical specifications. Further information was collected with selective literature reviews and from the earlier visits to the industrial townships of Jamshedpur, Mosaboni, Panipat and Visakhapatnam, by the author. More visits are made to understand social limitations while engaging child labour in fire‐baked brick kilns.

Findings

The findings include the techno‐marketing skills and leadership attributes of the entrepreneur, AS, Faridabad. Observations made on the intellectual knowledge and business plan executed by AS to support infrastructure‐based business opportunities for parts of the National Capital Region (NCR), India. The in‐house incubation center is an added advantage and found to be an essential component for the successful fabrication and assembling unit. Further, the study applauds role of advisory services rendered for mitigating solid waste through alternate commercial usage by the entrepreneur.

Practical implications

The study has lot of scope and opportunity either to make fabrication units for faster and efficient fly‐ash brick manufacturing or to procure such machinery and get set the unit for the manufacturing fly‐ash bricks in the regions of opportunity and infrastructure development. Hence, practical implications are two‐fold in a physical sense, but can be more in intellectual aspects. This includes development of fabrication designing studios using information and technology, facility planning and operations for the incubation centers, training and to harness skills of the rural youth.

Originality/value

The paper is original, and focused on fabrication entrepreneurship and has relevance to the social environment while mitigating child labour through more automation in brick manufacturing. The environmental value of reusability of solid waste is also unambiguous with this study. The values will further be enhanced when more business enterprises are visited and recorded for their social compliance through adapting to machine‐based brick manufacturing.

Citation

Narasimham, V.L. (2011), "Issues with fly‐ash and infrastructure waste: A techno‐business solution, Naldehra Building Centre, Faridabad, India", Society and Business Review, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 157-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465681111143975