Centre Pushes 44 New Construction Technologies to Boost Affordable, Disaster-Resilient Housing

The Central Government is soon going to put in place 44 new construction technologies directed towards the making of affordable, lightweight, and disaster-resilient housing under its Housing For All scheme. This push comes through the Construction Materials and Technology Development Council (CMTDC), after classification of the innovations into six clusters for wider adoption by the industry.

According to P. Balamurugan, a structural engineer, these technologies will be used in the next phase of the government’s Light House Projects currently in progress in six cities: Perumbakkam in Chennai, Rajkot in Gujarat, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, and Agartala in Tripura.

The technologies under the six categories encompass:

• 3D Precast (2 methods)
• Precast Concrete (9 methods)
• Lightweight Steel Structures (7 methods)
• Pre-packaged Sandwich Panels (15 methods)
• Monolithic Construction (2 methods)
• Sustainable Framework (9 methods)

The very combination of such 44 solutions is likely to speed up construction processes, reduce costs, and raise safety standards, particularly in disaster-prone regions. Many well-known construction firms have, by now, made prototype models with these techniques, while a detailed manual has been prepared for them.

The information about the technologies has been placed on CMTDC’s official site, while more instructions and guidelines will soon be up on the BPSC portal. This is aimed at enabling small and medium builders at the local level to apply these advanced methods.

Balamurugan remarked: “The philosophy is to make secure homes accessible irrespective of cost without compromising on quality or robustness.”

New push by the government to adopt such building methods coincides with India’s efforts in checking unbridled urbanization and housing deficit, while at the same time building resilience against disasters induced by climate. Therefore, the officers believe that it would be possible for the construction industry to become speedier and develop sustainably by standardising and massively scaling such technologies whilst ensuring affordability for lower- and middle-income families.