Ronak Rajendra Dhoot: Masters in Construction Project Management UK
Keywords: Precast, Concrete, Mass Housing, Construction, Lean
Precast Concrete Construction: Its challenges and implementation for mass housing in India
Abstract
Urbanization in India has generated huge demand for housing which neither the cities nor the housing sector is prepared for. The number of urban agglomerations has increased from 384 in 2001 to 475 in 2011, a decadal increase of 23.7%. As per the twelfth five-year plan (2012-17) the total housing shortage in rural areas is 43.66 million units. In order to cater the issue surrounds the shortage of affordable and low-cost mass housing at a much competitive cost and on time schedule, it is imperative to adopt alternative construction system. The Indian construction industry led by the traditional mode of construction as characterized by challenges such as low productivity, lack of skilled labor, time and cost overruns etc. Precast Concrete Construction, the so-called unconventional method in Indian Construction Industry can cater the above needs by offering both speed and quality of the construction. The research and applications of precast concrete structural systems are intended to support the low-cost mass construction at a much-accelerated rate. This research aims to critically analyses these above factors and overcome with the guidelines to address the bottlenecks of Implementing PCC technology in India.
Introduction
As per the 2018 study report conducted by Ernst & Young and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the construction industry in India is grappling with a 30% labor shortage. According to the report “Indian Construction Sector: The Great Leap Forward,” released earlier this year by Synergy Property Development Services, the country’s labor shortage is “pegged to go up by 65% by the next decade, with more workers and professionals shifting from construction and real estate industries to real estate to services industries. Due to uncertainties and unavailability of the workers, the companies schedules goes out of the window creating huge stress on project schedules, thus compromising on quality to meet the deadlines. The Indian construction industry is characterized by challenges such as low productivity, lack of skilled labor, time and cost overruns etc (Ramaswami,2009). Moreover, The Indian Construction Industry has changed rapidly since 5 to 6 years. The large-scale projects comprising of Townships, Mass Housings, IT/ITES parks, and SEZs‟ are of common occurrence these days and will only grow exponentially in the near future. The Construction industry is facing problems such as shortage of skilled labor, poor workmanship, and low quality of construction. There is a huge shortfall in meeting the demands of affordable housing. The urban population of India is expected to rise to 576 million by 2030 (currently population is 350 million) (Goyal,2013). Nonetheless housing is an industry that is mainly still hand crafted and majorly depends on manual labor and on-site construction, resulting in to large tones of material wastage, work inefficiency and lag in project deliverance.
Precast Building Technology in India is facing various challenges due to lack of awareness of advantages of precast, resistance to change, lack of expertise, lack of guidance, information and an assumption that precast is costly proposition in contrast to conventional without bearing in the mind the overall benefits associated with it and one of the fact that construction industry is not yet shifted to standardization. With the changing face of realty sector in Indian market, the change of construction methodology from conventional to precast building construction is anticipated.
Rising recognition of Precast in India
The quick improvement of the prefabricated structures market has revealed the importance and the robust construction quality provided by the precast concrete industry. The pace, simplicity and expense at which precast structures could be fabricated, have helped its climbing fame. The precast concrete sector is steadily increasing as a rising building system at a solid rate of 10 percent, year on year. Construction time saving without neglecting on the quality up front, has been the characteristics that have massively contributed to the growth of this area enduring development of the area. It is anticipated that the precast industry would grow 10 times in next five years from the present scenario with a market share of 2500 crore. The segments which are being predicted as the future opportunities are offices, education, residential and medical. The growth of these sectors are majorly driven by investments from Private finance initiative (PFI), public private partnerships (PPP) and from the government.
The government bodies also have been realizing the importance of precast technology as last year, in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013,global players like Elematic of Finland and Spiroll Precast Services Ltd of the US signed MoUs for Rs. 15,000 crore and Rs. 5,000 crore, respectively in order to provide precast technology in cost-effective and efficient housing construction within the State.
Implementation of Precast Concrete Structures in India
Precast concrete systems have gained a vast progress in India due to its several advantages. To name a few would be G+23 L&T’s Pragati in Bhoiwada, Parel, Mumbai; G+14 Tata Peenya by Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd. in Bangalore; DDA’s precast mass housing LIG and EWS at Narela and Rohini, Delhi.
DDA’s mass housing LIG and EWS at Narela & Rohini
Tata Peenya (G+14) by Shapoorji Pallonji & Co
L&T’s Pragati (G+23) in Bhoiwada, Parel, Mumbai