Soil nailing, hydroseeding and geo grids: Tamil Nadu Highways department turns to innovative solutions to prevent landslides in Nilgiris

COIMBATORE: In an effort to prevent landslides along the ghat road in the Nilgiris, the state highways department has come out with innovative solutions that will reinforce the soil on the slopes.

For better stabilization of the slopes, the highways department has undertaken soil nailing, hydro-seeding and geo grid works at landslip prone spots along the Ooty- Kotagiri- Mettupalayam Road.

Soil nailing is a geotechnical engineering technique that involves insertion of iron bars into the soil to strengthen them. Hydro-seeding involves growing grass on the soil to prevent erosion and geo grid use of knitted steel mat on the slopes. As many as 284 spots were identified to be prone to landslides in the Nilgiris.