Low Cost Pre-fabricated Houses: Something For Indian Entrepreneurs to Try Seriously !

A couple of days ago, I happen to see a website of a South African company specializing in the design and construction of low cost houses that could be made in just three days ! Later I have found information in the internet about the existence of many such firms who are specialists in this field. The idea they are promoting and implementing is nothing complex as compared to the high tech industries. But they are simple and most useful for human beings.

There are many unconventional options and designs. Pre fabricated and cast in site versions. The beauty is that these designs are very easy to make and are decent and more importantly, inexpensive.

[You may click these links to find it yourself : 1. Cast in-situ houses  2. Modular Homes  3. Modular Home Designs  4. am-cor pre-fab ferrocement kits]

If you search the internet you find that the world is much progressive in this except perhaps this large nation, India.

Indians are now consuming Chinese manufactured things in large quantities. The Chinese have gone ahead in this area too. There are many small and big manufacturers who make various kinds of panels for house construction.

Another important aspect is the large scale use of unburnt soil bricks of various kinds in house construction. Some efforts in this line could be seen in India here and there, but not in an organized manner.

On the overall, house construction in India so far in the organized sector has been in the conventional manner. Burnt bricks, cement mortar, steel reinforced cement concrete, some glass, some aluminium, tiles, etc all labour intensive, time consuming and expensive.

None of the present designs of houses in India are eco friendly. A independent house of say, 900 sq.ft carpet area takes at least an year to complete and costs as high as Rupees two million. On the other hand, a dwelling unit of similar size in a multi storied apartment building in urban India takes more than three years to complete and costs anything in the range of rupess three million to ten million.

Even though India is the second most populous country in the world, more than half of its population of 120 billion people live without a proper shelter. These populace is classified as the below poverty line (BPL) people whose average family income is less than Rs 5000 per month. It is just unthinkable that such people can even afford a housing unit even if it costs only one tenth of the cost of a small house that I mentioned above.

Besides, India has a serious shortfall of skilled labour in the house construction field. There is serious shortage of masons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, construction supervisors, planners, experienced engineers and architects.

It is foolish to think that the Indian government can do some thing to sort out such issues. The governments in India now are too short of visionary leaders who could foresee such problems and use their leadership to do some thing !

It is not true to say that India does not have any governmental organizations to do research work in this field and popularize such useful technologies. Organizations such as the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and many state government sponsored housing boards and other such governmental organizations have been in the field of house research and business for many decades. However, none of them have deviated much from the conventional methods of construction and could not popularize any practical and aesthetic housing designs which are affordable and also good to live comfortably.

Rapid growth of concrete constructions have caused serious depletion of river sand in many regions in India. Kerala is a good example in this regard. Here, river sand has become a scarce commodity that it is being imported from far away countries like Combodia. Even factory made sand, which is nothing but crushed rock, is also getting used as an alternative. The cost of river sand which used to be a few hundred rupees a couple of decades ago is now costing over Rs. 10,000/- a cubic metre. Cost of standard burnt brick has also increased many fold.

Concrete buildings are not at all comfortable to live due to its thermal characteristics. Homes built with RCC roofs absorb all the heat of the sun during the day and radiate it inwards in the night to the discomfort of the dwellers. People who can afford, then spend much on air conditioners and consume so much electricity making India a power hungry nation already, even with half of its population sleeping in the open skies !

All these call for urgent actions to popularize alternative design and construction technologies with regard to the future houses in India both for the urban and the rural people.

All over the world, changes have been brought about by dynamic and visionary entrepreneurs. This is an area where such people can think differently and evolve a business model that is useful to them, the users and the society.

Why not we think about designing, manufacturing and marketing completely knocked down (CKD) houses which could be assembled at site in a few days with the help of trained personnel ? Such houses should also look better aesthetically, comfortable, affordable and maintainable with a long life.

It is not difficult technically. Technologies and know how already exist in the world elsewhere.

What is needed is willing entrepreneurs who can take up the challenge to make a change !

The possibilities and opportunities are immense !


Note dtd 18-10-2013

For those who are interested in knowing more, I am including some prefab home and building manufacturers in India with their web address links:

1. Sri Vijayalakshmi Engineering Works, Bangalore 
2. Sintex Industries Limited, Kalol, Gujarat
3. Pre-fab Engg Consultancy, Bangalore
4. Champion Pre-fabs Goa
5. NCL Industries Ltd, Hyderabad
6. Shadows-Bison Prefab houses, Coimbatore
7. Smartec Build Systems, Hyderabad
8. Everest Industries Limited, Nashik, Maharashtra

Yet, it seems that no builder has apparently thought of bringing this technology to the convenience of the rural and sub-urban folks in India by making it popular and affordable. Those entrepreneurs having an urge for doing business laced with service should think about it.

The question is how a genuine person in India, thinking of building an affordable and durable home can have it constructed and delivered to him in about a month's time? Who will market the concept to such people ? And would such a home of say, 500 sq.ft be available at a cost less than that made using the prevalent technology using burnt bricks and cement and yet stylish and comfortable ?

The technology is available. What is lacking is the will to market it to those who need it.

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

EPC Services and Engineering Design Groups in India- Is there any HR crunch ?

I had earlier written a blog here highlighting the importance of engineering services departments for ensuring long term success of integrated steel plants of India. [You may read it Here !]

Engineering Services Departments (ESD) may be known in different names, but such a department is the key for ensuring success of capital project investments undertaken by the steel plants. Again success of the steel plants would invariably add to the economic progress of the country.

The same is applicable to other industries as well. For large process industries, existence of an ESD having a team of experienced and competent consulting engineers would be a great asset.

Some industries outsource the work of ESD to external engineering consultants. This is the only option for setting up a new industry. The following are some of the leading engineering consultancy service companies in India:

1. M. N. Dastur
2. MECON
3. Uhde
4. EIL
5. Tata Consulting Engineers
6. FP India
7. Fichtner India
8. DCPL
9. Libra Process
10. Linde Engineering
11. CECON Consultants Pvt Limited

But once the industry has come in to existence, its in house ESD should be in a position to look after its future needs with regard to all additions, modifications, replacements and even modernizations.

But ESD's alone cannot guarantee success of any project involving Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC). While ESDs are responsible for drawing the outline of the project formulation and the project estimation from the purchaser's side, reputed EPC contractors having the core competency in undertaking the detailed engineering, procurement and construction of the project upto  its successful testing and commissioning are also essential to ensure the completion of the project successfully.

In India companies or firms having full fledged infrastructure in executing EPC contracts are limited in number. As a result, whenever massive infrastructure investments are taken up by a number of investors both in the private and public sector almost simultaneously the essential capacities of the EPC contractors with regard to expert man power and related infrastructure gets overburdened creating a bottleneck for speedy implementation of projects.

The reason for this is because of the haphazard planning by the authorities. You just cannot spend billions of rupees in one or two year's time if you do not have that many experienced people to execute the projects even when you think of outsourcing the contracts to foreign EPC contractors. EPC involves group efforts by many teams of experienced engineers in various levels and disciplines capable of doing works like surveying, development of basic and detailed engineering drawings, construction at site, equipment sourcing, inspection , erection, testing and other such activities.

In India expertize in the field of surveying, design and drawing, which is essential for any EPC contract to be successful, has not seen much advancement in the last many years commensurate with the requirements.

It takes years of work experience for engineers to develop expertize in this field. When you do not have EPC projects not taking place for decades at a stretch, there is no chance that those engineers who are placed with EPC related work are getting experience that is required to be gained. Again, lack of adequate work in this field has caused many organizations, both in public and private sector, to curtail the strength of engineers in this field or altogether redeploy them to other areas of work.

Thus during the period from 1990 to 2005, there has been a big slump in EPC related work in India in many sectors. Many EPC contract companies who used to have a good name in the past have just got vanished from the scenes.

Later when decisions are taken for massive spending in EPC contracts, the purchasers are left with no option other than awarding contracts to any one without actually ascertaining their capacities to do the work in time. Even those who have managed to get contracts are running here and there in search of experienced engineers to do the job. Those who took voluntary retirements from the sinking organisations of yester years are in great demand now.

But those who think that such engineers would be of some help in doing the work might not be knowing fully well about the complexities of the work done by an experienced team of engineers.

An individual engineer, even when he is experienced would be a helpless person unless he has got the backup support system by way of his peers , subordinates and others who used to be his strength. Besides, in a new place he is without his back up knowledge !

There are a few EPC contractors who are surviving the slump of the last decade and are perhaps doing well now. Now the time is good for them as there are plenty of orders and opportunities. Their order books should be full.

Some of the leading Indian EPC firms are :
1. Larsen and Toubro
2. Punj Lloyd
3. Jaypee Associates
4. Lanco Infratech
5. Nagarjuna Constructions
6. IVRCL
7. Simplex Infrastructure
9. Gammon India
11.Tata Projects
12. Shapoorji Pallonji
13. GVK

14. Siemens 

15. MECON (Public Sector)

17. EIL (Public Sector)

18. Simon India

19. Usha Projects

20. Technip India
21. MBE 
22. Danieli Corus India

Whether it is an in-house ESD of a large industry or an engineering consultancy service company or an EPC service firm their efficacy and success depends on their ability to retain and develop engineering talent and expertise especially in the engineering design and consultancy field. This is indeed a difficult human resource development (HRD) task.

In engineering design and consultancy field every engineer from each of the specialized field of engineering discipline has to be with exemplary professional skills and knowledge. Without which the group cannot accomplish the challenges posed to it. Without having a steady inflow of assignments the group cannot gain experience. The group cannot expand to have more engineers to its fold, unless it has an assured income coming from engineering design and consultancy works.

EPC and engineering consultancy groups face this dilemma: to expand in manpower or not. Haphazard developments plans of the country is the biggest problem in this regard. EPC and consultancy groups are often compelled to play safe. They keep the man power at the minimum. Some consultancy companies that had grown too big in man power due to the work loads in the past decades had to adopt various means such as voluntary retirements to reduce its man power when work inputs reduced. This way a good chunk of their expertise in various areas got removed. Later when investment momentum began picking up, they faced human resource crunch which had its own effects in the quality of their engineering expertise and services. I would not like to name those groups because their managements officially would not like to highlight such drawbacks for obvious reasons.

The human resource vacuum that happened in India in core engineering fields with regard to real engineering experience, in all industries both in the public and private sectors, is the main reason why India is facing cost and time overruns in almost all infrastructural and industrial projects.

As engineering is a group activity, it would be very difficult to identify the areas of competency vacuums that exist in the various organizational hierarchy by statistical studies.

To identify this we need to adopt a different approach. The top authorities should open their eyes to recognize the ground realities in this important area that is critical to the country's future developments if at all progress is to be achieved in a reasonable time frame.

An open discussion by the people who are working in this area of EPC and engineering consultancy fields might be helpful.

It would be an interesting study if some one undertakes to find out the number of engineers working in design and engineering field in India and the details of their qualifications, experience, age, expertize, etc. I percieve a human resource (HR) inadequacy in this field. There is also a need to make this area an interesting career option for young and bright engineers. If the field does not attract them, progress of India would depend on foreign help perennially for ever.
I may be wrong in my perceptions.

Please correct me if I am.

Their Reality and Our Reality !

I am a design engineer by profession. I consider it a very difficult profession. To be a good designer you have to learn a lot, experience a lot and then think a lot. All these activities are not so palatable for those who want to enjoy life without using their brains.

Whenever I find difficulty visualizing the complexities involved in making some designs come true, a thought comes to my mind. That is about those designers who visualized the designs of the most complex things that we ever can imagine !

Yes, I am referring to the material life forms that we see all around us. It encompasses every form of material life around us, including us.

I often try to think of a better design than what I observe in the design of my own body. No, I am not at all capable of doing that. A big 'Pranam' to those great designers!

But I cannot visualize them. I cannot see them. But my mind tells that they are real. Because no complex design is ever possible without the application of intelligent mind!

So my mind can recognise the reality of existence of superior intelligences that designed all these marvellous designs that we see in out material world.

As I cann't understand and visualize these intelligences, shall I simply say it is God, just as you all are saying. Oh, it is God and we cannot understand that. God is just beyond our comprehension. Why waste time and energy to think of something that we just cannot comprehend?

Any way we have been told to prostate ourselves before God. And we have been doing that.

But yet some curiosity and doubt about God and His ways. Is He alone ? How does He function ? Is He just commanding to create things just out of nothing like a magician ?

Does He have an organization of intelligent personalities doing the work for Him without we ever directly knowing about it?

Oh ! My God! Tell us whether you are a reality just as we think we are realities.

Those so called spiritual leaders and saints say that you are a reality. They also make money by teaching us that you teach them in secret.

But Oh God ! Are you a reality ? Do you understand our languages ? Do you understand our science and technology? Do you understand Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics ? Have you ever told our spiritual leaders about these things ?

I recently read a book supposedly written by unseen intelligent personalities from your side. There are too many authors, supposedly experts in various fields of knowledge.

Being a designer myself in the material realm, I am overwhelmed when one of the invisible authors of this book wrote about the work of artisans who work for you in the realms that are not discernable to us now.

Let me reproduce some of which this particualar author wrote:

"All these activities of the morontia and spirit worlds are real. To spirit beings the spirit world is a reality. To us the material world is the more unreal. The higher forms of spirits freely pass through ordinary matter. High spirits are reactive to nothing material excepting certain of the basic energies. To material beings the spirit world is more or less unreal; to spirit beings the material world is almost entirely unreal, being merely a shadow of the substance of spirit realities.

"I cannot, with exclusive spirit vision, perceive the building in which this narrative is being translated and recorded. A Divine Counselor from Uversa who chances to stand by my side perceives still less of these purely material creations. We discern how these material structures appear to you by viewing a spirit counterpart presented to our minds by one of our attending energy transformers. This material building is not exactly real to me, a spirit being, but it is, of course, very real and very serviceable to material mortals.

"There are certain types of beings who are capable of discerning the reality of the creatures of both the spirit and the material worlds. Belonging to this class are the so-called fourth creatures of the Havona Servitals and the fourth creatures of the conciliators. The angels of time and space are endowed with the ability to discern both spirit and material beings as also are the ascending mortals subsequent to deliverance from the life in the flesh. After attainment of the higher spirit levels the ascenders are able to recognize material, morontia, and spirit realities.

"There is also here with me a Mighty Messenger from Uversa, an ascendant Adjuster-fused, onetime mortal being, and he perceives you as you are, and at the same time he visualizes the Solitary Messenger, the supernaphim, and other celestial beings present. Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.

"But I almost despair of being able to convey to the material mind the nature of the work of the celestial artisans. I am under the necessity of constantly perverting thought and distorting language in an effort to unfold to the mortal mind the reality of these morontia transactions and near-spirit phenomena. Your comprehension is incapable of grasping, and your language is inadequate for conveying, the meaning, value, and relationship of these semispirit activities. And I proceed with this effort to enlighten the human mind concerning these realities with the full understanding of the utter impossibility of my being very successful in such an undertaking.

It seems to me Oh God, that you have undertaken some efforts to tell us about your ways now as we understand it in this 21st century. Many of the terms that the author has written are never heard by us before !

The author who wrote the above must be a reality as he talks with so much confidence and trying to talk about their realities and our realities inorder that we in our reality try to understand it.

But it will take most of us much time to come out of what our spiritual leaders have been teaching us all these ages. According to them, you just cannot teach us realities. At the most about Maya, illusions and about the abstract spirituality are that we can learn from you. That is what our enlightened spiritual leaders say.

Those who are not in their spell are few in numbers, O God !

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog at SiliconIndia Website]