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Prefab Tech for construction will help implement “Housing for All”: RICS

Prefab Tech

Adopting modern construction technologies for real estate development is one of the critical aspects for implementation of ‘Housing for All’ as that will help in drastically cutting down delivery time of housing projects while maintaining solid construction quality, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

Delivery of housing projects in India is considered to be the biggest challenge faced by end users and can also potentially stifle the pace for reaching the massive construction target under ‘Housing for All’.

Addressing a workshop on ‘Role of Precast Technology’ organized by RICS School of Built Environment – Amity University, Hindustan Prefab Limited (HPL), and Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Secretary Dr. Nandita Chatterjee stressed on the need for improvement in construction technologies including prefab structures to implement the scheme ‘Housing for All’ by 2022.

“An enormous number of houses to the tune of about 20 million will be required to be constructed by 2022. Hence, we will need innovative fast-track construction technologies through judicious selection and evaluation of globally acceptable contemporary technologies,” Ms. Chatterjee said.

For this, a Prefab Action Group (PAG) is proposed to be set up for suggesting policy directives to cut down delivery timeline of houses, a woe that has constantly dogged the housing sector for decades.

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“A Prefab Action Group (PAG) is to be constituted at ministry level with lead from HPL and BMTPC to promote and suggest policy level and grasroot level interventions for prefab construction in mass housing” Dr. Shailesh Kr. Agrawal, Executive Director, BMTPC said.

Ministry of Urban Development had established the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) to bridge the gap between research and development and large scale application of new building material technologies.

Rajesh Goel, CMD HPL addressing the gathering said “it is encouraging to see the participation of over 200 experts, 15 states, major private sector players, and various government agencies in this workshop. HPL is the nodal agency under the ministry that will take the lead in this very important initiative pertaining to precast technologies.”

PAG will also create a pool of institutions/experts who are willing to provide technical solution to use prefab technologies coming in the market in terms of evaluation, certification, design aids, adaptability etc. in time bound manner.

“In order to achieve efficiency at a mass level, a focused approach needs to be adopted, which would combine construction with design processes to create standard components which could be easily transported, easily erected on site and, at the same time being locally sensitive and culturally acceptable. For this, an objective robust matrix needs to be worked out, in order to evaluate emerging technologies,” said Dr. Anil Sawhney, Associate Dean and Director, School of Construction, RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University.

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To encourage mainstreaming of prefab construction, a certain percentage of housing is proposed to be taken up by states under ‘Housing for All’ using prefab technologies. The project using emerging technologies may be incentivized under ‘Housing for All’ through subsidy, as per the proposal with the government.

The workshop panelists strongly recommended that the government should remove excise duty from prefab to create a level playing field with cast-in-situ conventional construction.

Various experts spoke at the workshop including Mr. Arun Kashikar, Head R&D, TATA Housing, Mr. Amit Barde, GM (Projects), Larsen & Toubro, Mr. Yogesh Kajale, Vice President, B.G. Shirke Construction Technology, Dr Anil Kumar Sharma, CMD Amrapali Group, Professor K T Ravindran, Dean Emeritus, RICS School of Built Environment, and Mr. Anil Kumar Seth, Executive Director Supertech.

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