FROM TRIPURA: Bamboo is an essential tool for housekeeping from the primeval times. Many potential industries have grown up centering bamboo. In India, with the help of technology and processing, ‘bamboo-wood’ has been developed as an alternative of wood for making house doors, windows, furnishings, flooring, ceiling and tiles that drew huge popularity. The eco-friendly alternative bamboo woods can reduce the room temperature as an air-cooler (AC) and beautify the house.
Mumbai based industrial group Mukha Group is making this family essentials using modern technology and machineries. Ironically, the factories have been set up in the industrial areas of so-called industrially backward Indian state of Tripura.
Former Industry Minister and present deputy speaker Pabitra Kar has taken the initiatives of making Tripura industrially developed.
At the factories, Bamboo, under hydraulic pressure of three thousand tons, is being converted into solid wood. It just looks like wood but bamboo wood can take double pressure than wood. The bamboo-wood branded as ‘Epitom’ is being marketed in Asian and European markets.
Where as the fourteen millimeter thick wooden plunk can take the load of six hundred kilograms, the bamboo-wood can bear the load of twelve hundred kgs. Generally you can give scratch on normal wood plunk by any hard substance but there is no possibility of scratching bamboo-wood.
Fire may damage a wooden table in seven minuets but it will take at least sixteen minutes to damage bamboo-wood. Normal wood generally affected by insects but it is insect proof and has a several times higher life span than normal wood.
Mukha Company of India is giving the guarantee of twenty years for bamboo-wood made products. Any defected product is taken back by the company with a full return of money. The authority claims that its products have life long lasting span.
Though bamboo-wood is well known in Europe and America but in India it came to light just three and half years back when a factory was established in Agartala, capital of Tripura state. The bamboo-wood made here has already earned reputation and has won the confidence of the customers. These products are very popular to people who likes fashion and diversification.
If any body uses bamboo-wood made family essentials in the room, then the temperature will be less in summer while the rooms will be warmer in winter. The interior fittings takes ten hours to get cooled in air-conditioned fitted rooms while this bamboo-wood decorated rooms take six hours that will eventually bring the electricity charge forty percent less, as told by senior manage(production) of Epitom Sudip Chakravarty.
In the factory, a normal bamboo, after lengthy processing, is converted into bamboo-wood. Every step of the conversion is strictly monitored and tested in laboratory to maintain high quality. Bamboo-wood is made germ free so that it cannot affect public health.
To save it from insects, the bamboo-wood is boiled to make it free from sugar content and then it is carbonized. A normal bamboo after fifteen days processing becomes bamboo-wood. All sizes of plank for various uses are available here.
Another advantage of bamboo-wood is that it is easily transportable. You can shift the bamboo-wood made floor to another room without any hassle or loss. This is also applicable for wall and roof fittings.
It is made like plastic puzzle which can be put together without any adhesive. It is also very much fashionable. For these reasons the bamboo-wood has become popular as an alternative of wood.
It is also very much eco-friendly. While we usually wait several decades to get normal wood from trees, we can get good seasoned bamboos within two to three years. This has lessened the dependence on normal wood, environment remains friendly. On the other hand quick growing bamboos are being used in more important purposes.
BDST: 1655 HRS, JUN 04, 2017
SJN/AP
