Construction sector is constantly experimenting with modern building materials and technologies

- Dr. Shailesh Kr. Agarwal

Executive Director, Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC)

How do you view the evolution of Indian construction market over the years?

Construction sector has been reticent about innovations in the construction sector or rather slow in embracing modern technologies. For last several decades, ever since Portland cement came in to existence, the world over cast-in-situ RCC framed construction is in vogue besides brick and mortar masonry construction. This brick and stick business as usual approach is not sustainable as it puts pressure on existing natural resources, adds to pollution, enhances greenhouse gas emission, and is not economical over the life span of a building. Further, in light of climate change, extreme events, recurrent disasters across the globe, the construction industry is constantly evolving.

There have been successful case studies across Europe, USA, Russia where after World War, in order to quickly reconstruct, industrialised building systems such as prefabricated construction was adopted. Ever since there have been constant research and development so as to evolve and adapt the modern construction methods into mainstream. India is also not lagging behind and our public and private players are going for emerging construction technologies, which help in fast tracking the construction and at the same time bring resource efficiency, environment friendliness and sustainability. Systems such as monolithic concrete construction (aluminium formwork), precast concrete construction and pre-engineered buildings are being adopted and preferred in the Indian construction market. 

Building and infrastructure are being given top priority in the country so as to become the world's fastest growing economy  and build new young India and therefore, construction sector is constantly experimenting with modern building materials and technologies. The government sector is also contributing proactively towards evaluation, assessment and mainstreaming of modern construction systems through its housing for all and other infrastructure related mission mode programmes.

What are the perceptible changes visible in India in terms of adoption of modern construction materials and technologies in projects?

The Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) in 2015 with the objective of providing housing for all. This mission has a Technology Sub-Mission with the objective to facilitate modern, innovative and green technologies and building materials in place of conventional construction for faster and quality construction of houses. The Sub-Mission also aims to mainstream and upscale the deployment of such modern technologies through coordination with public and private agencies and creating enabling environment. Under this technology Sub-Mission in 2019, Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) was organised where global players dealing with modern construction systems were invited in a two days Construction Technology India (CTI 2019) Expo cum Conference to showcase proven demonstrable construction systems which can not only minimise the construction time but also resource efficient, climate responsive, sustainable and disaster resistant.

Further, to give impetus, Government of India is constructing six Light House Projects comprising 1,000+ houses with basic and social infrastructure using six distinct technologies shortlisted under GHTC-India at six cities in six states e.g. Lucknow, UP; Rajkot, Gujarat; Indore, MP; Chennai, Tamil Nadu; Ranchi, Jharkhand; and Agartala, Tripura.  These Light House Projects are treated as live laboratories with large scale citizen participation so as to sensitise the professionals and citizens about these modern construction technologies and at the same time build capacities in construction sector for adaptation and replication. The foundation stone laying for all the six Light House Projects was done by Prime Minister and the project at Chennai is already handed over to the beneficiaries.The other projects are at the advanced stage of construction.

To give further fillip to these emerging construction systems, Government of India through CPWD has mandated use of these technologies and detailed Schedule of Rates (SORs) have also been developed. BMTPC also through its Performance Appraisal Certification Scheme (PACS) has certified most of these technologies. Under PMAY (Urban) around 1.6 million houses are being constructed using alternate and emerging technologies. Also, various states including public and private agencies are adopting these technologies and therefore, it can be safely presumed that the construction sector is slowly albeit surely going towards modern technologies replacing conventional RCC cast-in-situ frame and load bearing masonry construction.

How do you relate the demand-supply scenario of building materials in the country? What are the challenges faced by the building materials segment?

With US$3 trillion GDP, India is one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world. It is witnessing massive public investment, robust private consumption, and structural reforms leading to rapid growth of more than 7%.  Further, India is poised to become $5 trillion economy and aspiring to become a $10 trillion economy in near future. Also, construction in India is emerging as the third largest sector globally; it may reach US$1,000 billion in value. Besides, India is fast urbanising with 377 million people (31%) living in urban areas as per 2011 Census. This population will continue to grow and will reach 590 million (40%) by 2030 and 815 million (50%) by 2050. This rapid urbanisation also opens growing opportunities and it is estimated that India has to build 600-800 million sqm urban space every year till 2030, i.e. a new Chicago every year, to meet urban aspirations.

Therefore, cities, which will contribute over 80% to GDP by 2050, need to be receptive, innovative and productive to foster sustainable growth and ensure better quality of living. With these statistics, it is clear that there is huge demand in years to come and therefore, we need to take a paradigm shift from business as usual approach and adopt the comprehensive strategy of 3-S mantra, i.e. Skill, Scale and Speed.

In order to meet the growing demand, there have been several initiatives by Government of India such as AatmaNirbhar Bharat, Make in India, Startup India, which aim to look at the supply side. There have been spurt of young entrepreneurs and engineers who are venturing into modern construction technologies. There are also foreign investment and number of technology providers setting up their manufacturing facilities for providing modern technological solutions to cater to this growing urban demand. Despite of all these efforts, there is lot more desired to have hassle-free demand and supply chain.

What is your take on introducing more sustainable materials and solutions in construction? How far does BMTPC promote sustainability and green solutions?  

In the wake of Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, COP 29, India is committed to move towards carbon neutral development. As it is known that construction sector consumes 40% of precious energy, 25% of water, 40% of natural resources and at the same time contribute 50% towards air pollution, 42% of GHG emission, 50% of water pollution and 48% of solid wastes. Also GHG emissions will double by 2050 if we continue with business as usual scenario in construction sector. It is high time that we bring clean and green building materials and technologies including modern methods of construction and processes which can lead India towards sustainable development. Sustainability is now one of the deciding factors while undertaking development work and therefore, it is important for the construction fraternity to look for materials, processes and technologies which are resource efficient, climate resilient, energy efficient and eco-friendly.

BMTPC since its inception has been promoting green and sustainable solutions for building construction. BMTPC is authorised to operate a scheme called Performance Appraisal Certification Scheme (PACS) through which innovative sustainable building materials and technologies are being evaluated and assessed for their suitability in the construction sector. So far 76 such innovations have been certified which can be downloaded from BMTPC website (https://www.bmtpc.org). Out of this 76, 42 innovative construction systems have been given PACs. This PAC is also kind of pre-standard which helps later to develop Indian standards on these innovations.

Under GHTC-India, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India has taken Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators-India (ASHA-India) initiative which aims to nurture upcoming Indian individuals or technology ventures in the field of construction technology in housing sector in their start-up phase by providing all the support necessary to help entrepreneurs establish themselves before they scale up their ventures and to support entrepreneurs translating innovations into products and services that are commercially viable.

Five ASHA-India centres have been established namely at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay; Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee; and CSIR-CBRI/CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat where incubation and acceleration support is being provided to potential future sustainable technologies namely (a) Pre-Prototype (that are not yet market ready) which includes innovative technologies that are at ideation and prototyping stage, and essentially require further technical hand-holding through longer-term incubation to reach a viable product in the domain of construction systems and components and (b) Post Prototype (that are market ready) which includes technologies that have a working and viable product but require strategic guidance and acceleration to mainstream their product in the market, in the domain of construction systems and components, solutions that improve efficient usage of natural resources in housing and construction, self-help innovations, and digital technology solutions. At present, 11 shortlisted Pre-Prototype technologies and 37 Post-Prototype technologies are being nurtured.

In addition, there has been National Building Code 2016 which has chapter on Sustainability and recently, there have been concerted efforts by Government of India by bringing out Green Rating Systems and Eco Niwas Samhita (Part 1 & Part 2) which are energy codes on new buildings for ushering energy efficiency in the building sector.

With the Government coming out with mega plans on infrastructure and real estate developments, what opportunities do you visualise for building materials and technology players?

Sky is the limit for the construction sector to adopt building materials and modern construction technologies and processes as India is poised to become world's largest economy. Also, as India celebrates Azadi Ka Amrit Mahakaal, the next 25 years are going to be golden opportune time for technocrats and professionals to introduce fast track sustainable building materials and technologies which can help build cost-effective, resilient and sustainable structures and lead India towards its 100th year of Independence. The kind of scales India have, India can surely become a global leader in the area of building materials and construction systems and show the world the path towards sustainable development. 

A few potential areas which have tremendous opportunities are (i) Industrialised Building Systems (ii) gainful utilisation of agricultural and industrial wastes into building materials and products (iii) green building materials such as low carbon cement, manufactured sand, artificial aggregates (iv) geo-polymer concrete (v) prefabricated/precast pod elements, buildings and structures, (vi) digital solutions in the construction sector such as BIM, Internet of Things etc., (vii) alternate building materials and technologies using local materials and skills, and (viii) disaster resilient technologies.

What are the key initiatives from the association to improve the efficiency and productivity levels of the industry, considering the possible demand escalation in future?

BMTPC being technical organisation of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs is in constant pursuit to bring paradigm shift in the construction sector by introducing emerging construction systems and technologies which can ensure faster delivery of sustainable, resilient and economical housing.

In order to mainstream these innovations in the sector there have been several key initiatives being taken by BMTPC in association with Government of India which are:

1. Identification, assessment and evaluation of innovative building materials and construction systems
2. Mainstreaming innovations through demonstration constructions
3. E-Certificate Courses : (i) NAVARITIH : e-Certificate Course on Innovative Construction Technologies, (ii) e-course on Vulnerability Atlas of India; (iii) e-course on Earthquake Resistant House Construction.
4. Networking with academic institutions and research laboratories and Chambers/Associations for further study, promotion, replication and adaptation.
5. Creating enabling eco-system for emerging construction systems with CPWD and BIS through development of Schedule of Rates, Specifications and Indian Standards.
6. Expositions, workshops, webinars, capacity building programmes, handholding of states, public and private construction agencies.
7. Publication of technical literature, manuals, guidelines and compendiums.

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