Proactive Steps to Boost the Construction Economy

With this December issue, Built Expressions completes three successful years of publication and hopefully has succeeded in its endeavour in providing meaningful and useful information to the fraternity. We have tried to reach the engineering and architectural community to the best of our ability with a wide spectrum of pragmatic topics authored by experts in the field including special briefs and interactions with the who is who of the construction industry.In these three years, at Argus Media Pvt Ltd, as publishers of Built Expressions, we have received both bricks and bouquets with poise and leveraged them to propel our progressive aspirations.

As the year concludes and curtains draw with the new government in place, and with many proactive initiatives promised to boost the infrastructure and construction industry, we are yet to see the tangible effects on the ground. The very concept of sustaining the robust growth of India’s economy with infrastructure development as a key factor has enabled India aiming to double its investment in infrastructure sector through private investment to a staggering one trillion USD during the 12^th five year plan duration. Technological advancements, innovations in material sciences, entry of multi-national entities, opening up of FDI policies, 3D printing, BIM, supply chain management, have placed before us plethora of new career options.

Further, the effect of urbanisation in search of better lifestyle will see about 600 million people living in cities by 2030 and thus giving rise to significant growth opportunities in development of Smart cities as envisaged by the Government. These smart cities are expected to provide an integrated platform in respect of Economy, Mobility, Environment, People, Living and Governance. It is estimated that we require an outlay of INR 7 lakh crore over 20 years (escalation of 10% per annum) to develop 100 smart cities. The draft concept note on smart cities specifies types of cities that would be eligible for being developed as smart cities in India. These include mix of cities with high and low population and also cities of tourist importance. Almost all cities having a population of more than 4 million are expected to have satellite cities developed as smart cities.

The demand for office space for example in the top 8 metros - Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Ahmadabad - was up 58% for the period January - March 2014 as compared to the same period the previous year, as per report of consultants Cushman & Wakefield. Of these, Ahmedabad and Delhi-NCR recorded the maximum demand. Meanwhile, the residential segment saw an increase of 43% during the first quarter of 2014 has across the eight major cities, with Bengaluru recording the largest number of units, followed by Mumbai and Chennai.

On the flipside, India now faces one of the greatest challenges in terms of non availability of required human resources to see these projects through. Educational and training institutes-Private and Governmental, have to fold up their sleeves and evolve strategies to encounter this unprecedented challenge before the country. This attains all the more importance as technologies are advancing and construction processes are getting mechanised. The need of the hour is to develop our young engineers into future engineers with integrated awareness. And in the midst of this developmental scenario, the pressure on sustainable development, issues related to global warming, carbon footprint reduction is also to be addressed. We at Built Expressions strongly believe that India shall grow to its highest potential surmounting all the challenges and we need to do our bit in channelizing the unfathomable youth energy between the age group of 15 to 30, available at present in the country.

Our next issue is going to be an exclusive anniversary issue with a feast of informative articles of relevance and importance. The issue shall be combined (Jan-Feb 2015) and released in the third week of Feb as usual but with a refreshing outlook. Change is inevitable in the evolving process and ought to be respected.

The entire team of Argus Media takes this opportunity to wish all its readers, subscribers, expert members and well wishers, a very happy and prosperous new year.