BIM can potentially save around 20% of the total infrastructure project costs.

Paul Wallett, Regional Director, Trimble Middle-East and India

“One of the most important steps that the government can take to push the industry towards digitalization is by making BIM use mandatory for all infrastructure construction projects,” says Paul Wallett, Regional Director, Trimble Middle-East and India. Excerpts from the interview…

What is your outlook on the critical role that will be played by construction software & digital technologies in 2021?

Industry estimates are already forecasting a double digit growth rate for the construction industry. In fact, given the close linkages between infrastructure spending and resultant economic growth, governments around the world are ramping up their investments in infrastructure construction in order to contain the economic fallout of the pandemic. Therefore the mid-to-long term outlook for the infrastructure and construction sector remains robust.

The lockdown and subsequent increase in focus on safety regulations along with social distancing concerns pushed the engineering and construction industry to further hasten the adoption of technology and the resultant automation. Most leading players realized that end-to-end digitalization of construction workflows through deployment of technologies like connected construction, constructible BIM, IoT, mixed reality and robotics can be powerful enablers of rapid gains in productivity and efficiency.

We believe that this momentum should continue and even gather more pace in this new year. For 2021, we believe that the adoption of full-scale digitalization in construction, or what we call as connected construction will grow more mainstream, with a substantial number out of India's top 100 construction companies embracing it. These modern tech solutions will also attract larger investments in digital technology in the longer run.

Do you expect any policy or regulatory support from concerned authorities for faster & deeper adoption of digital solutions?

Going forward, one of the most important steps that the government can take to push the industry towards digitalization is by making BIM use mandatory for all infrastructure construction projects. In fact, a crucial step towards this direction has already been taken last year with Niti Aayog advising all infrastructure ministries to implement BIM for their projects. This was after the Niti Aayog concluded that BIM can potentially save around 20% of the total infrastructure project costs by reducing the overall construction time.

We remain optimistic that the government will make Constructible BIM mandatory for all public infrastructure projects and make India join the list of forward thinking nations that have already done so, and are now reaping the benefits of faster and more efficient infrastructure construction. This league includes countries like the UK, Singapore and France, which mandated BIM for public projects a few years ago.

What is your road map in for the year 2021?

Through 2021, we will continue to take advantage of our core technologies in positioning, modelling, connectivity and data analytics to help our clients deliver higher-quality projects faster and within allocated budgets, while also meeting their safety and sustainability goals.

As global leaders in construction technology, we also remain dedicated to bringing cutting-edge digital tools and solutions to the Indian construction industry this year, which will in turn help the industry players increase their productivity, reduce materials wastage, and optimize their schedules, budgets and real estate portfolios. Trimble already offers powerful solutions that streamline construction workflows, communication and collaboration and this year we are looking to update them with new features to further enhance their value proposition and help the industry adopt them with ease in 2021 and beyond.

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