Realty Sector Turning To Mechanization

Mr. Sadanand Byakod, Chief Executive Officer, G:Corp Developers Pvt. Ltd.

With the extreme crunched timeline to deliver projects, builders are routing workmanship to construction equipments. Mr. Sadanand Byakod, Chief Executive Officer, G:Corp Developers Pvt. Ltd., opines in an interaction with Built Expressions that these equipments are versatile enough to bring in productivity and efficiency and builders are largely turning to mechanization.

BE: In what way do you think construction mechanisation can optimize productivity and efficiency at sites? How far these equipments can be the only solution to encounter the skill shortage?

 At the outset, construction mechanisation will bring in better control over the quality of work, due to controlled environment. Controlled environment means the raw material management in terms of proportion of mixing/operational process and output of the final product will be well defined, this is the major factor to get better quality, because the person working on these mechanised equipments will be well trained to operate and follow the process.  The fatigue levels of the person working on the equipments will be less than the person working on the construction processes manually and the directions are much clearer. All the above referred factors help in increasing the productivity and efficiency at site.

In the recent times there is a huge spurt in the construction activities, a decade earlier i.e., in 80's and early 90's most of us used to talk of handling works as a team or individually as an in charge to the tune of 5-6 lakhs sft at the most. But in the past decade there is paradigm shift in the construction volume, we all talk of handling minimum 5-6 million sq ft, but there is no change in time line to complete the project. At one time we used to talk of completing the 5-6 lakhs sq ft of work in approximately 3 years and we expect the 5-6 million sq ft of work to be completed in same 3 years time now. So simply depending on the raw man power is just not possible and getting right skill sets in the man power dependant execution  for enhanced volume of works is a major challenge.  Hence construction equipments or mechanisation in construction are the better solution to counter the skill shortage.

BE: Which are the main areas of work that require construction equipments? Can you name important equipments that you commonly used at construction sites?

A Construction equipment mainly should reduce the time of execution, should have defined process and also reduce the activity levels and should help to get the best quality final product, so going by this requirement following are the main areas which I feel are relevant in the today's scenario that require construction equipments and have been used by me in the past few years,

• Mechanised form work system - Jump forms and /or slip forms for vertical surfaces, Table forms for horizontal surfaces. The well defined process will assist us to get the safer working environment, lesser man power and speedier construction.
• Mechanised casting and installations - Precast for concrete walls( these may be insulated double walls or plain walls) and  Precast concrete slabs ( these may be hollow core and solid slabs basis the type of requirements), this technology  works something like a well defined state of the art production line like a car manufacturing product line. The various pre cast components can then be transported and installed mechanically. This type of mechanised construction will substantially reduce the activities like masonry, plastering, chasing for conduit and also reduce the challenges of waste/debris management, once the precast wall panels and slabs are erected the raw unit will be ready and only requires final finishes like flooring, doors/window fixing and painting, fittings and fixtures. The challenges of skill shortage have reduced substantially.
• Mechanised Spraying machines -for plaster, painting and base surfaces like gypsum etc. These spraying machines will enhance the speed and help maintain the correct mix, ultimately helping to get better quality and also reduce mixing at various locations and lesser messing up of the areas.
• Mechanised concrete surface floaters- This will enhance the surface finish and does not require any additional finish in basement areas. And at various usable floors one would get the uniform smooth surface ultimately reducing the errors in slab surface levels while finishing manually, which normally lead to increased cost of screed material.
• Reinforcement rings/stirrups making machines - These machines reduce wastage substantially and also counter the challenge of skill shortage as well as help to increase the speed of work. Last but not the least the quality of stirrup bends at the ends is extremely good and will serve the design purpose truly.
• Gas Pressure Welding - This will help to replace the reinforcement lapping for diameter above 16mm, this gas pressure welding also helps to reduce smaller cut bars ( normally sold at scrap value) of dia.16mm and above, this type of welding will not change the characteristics of the reinforcement bar and will  not affect the design parameters.

BE: Even though usage of construction equipment is picked up in the recent times, there are challenges associated with it. In this perspective, what are those challenges and how do you combat those barriers?

The challenges associated with the construction equipment or mechanisation in construction is multi fold as referred in the following:

• Still most of the mechanised equipments are manufactured out of India, so capital cost is the major concern
• Secondly as we import these equipments, the next concern is the after sales service and availability of spares
• The  acceptance of the mechanised equipments by the people / the team which will be utilising the machinery on day to day basis, even though the business head is ready to invest.

However the increase in usage of these equipments will pave way for the production of the spares locally and also most of the manufacturers have started to setting up their production units in our country, which will reduce cost of capital investment as well as reduce concerns of after sales service and spares availability. Secondly the Government also should consider the subsidy on import duty of such mechanised equipments.