Need to look for alternative tech in construction

A workshop on ‘Emerging Building Materials & Technologies’ was organised by the Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council at Engineering Staff College of India, on Saturday.

B Venkatasem, secretary and managing director, Telangana State Housing Corporation Limited, who inaugurated the workshop revealed the Central Government’s plan to provide housing for all by 2022.

“With a huge demand for construction of houses and infrastructure, depletion of natural resources, problem of disposal of industrial wastes, diminishing of potable water used in construction in many cities, threat of green house effect and ozone depletion; there is need to look for alternative emerging technologies, which are not only structurally safe and durable but also be environment-friendly, easy to use and at the same time sustainable and affordable,” he said.

Venkatasem felt that the construction industry should look beyond the geographical boundary of the country to bring successful international practices suiting diverse geoclimatic conditions of the country for speed, quality and durability in construction.

The highlight of the workshop was a detailed presentation by technology providers of monolithic concrete construction system, glass fibre reinforced gypsum panel system, 3s prefabricated system, advance building system using factory made polystyrene core panels, light gauge steel structure system, wafflecrete system and pre-fab cast-in-suite (3D Panel) System of Housing.

Dr Shailesh Kumar Agrawal, executive director, BMTPC, informed the participants about various initiatives of BMTPC in bringing innovative emerging technologies to main stream construction practices.

The workshop was attended by engineers, architects of state government, representatives of builders, academics from IIT and JNTU-H who stressed on the need for use of these technologies for mass housing in the state was called upon, so as to have quality, speed and sustainability in the construction projects.