As Executive Director of BMTPC since 2008, working towards the mandate of Affordable Housing for All through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY)-Urban by promoting & transferring emerging housing technologies for faster & sustainable development at the grass root level for the common people of India. The current areas of work are (a) alternate building materials & construction technologies, Disaster Mitigation & Management, Skill development & Capacity Building and Project Management & Consultancy (b) Transplanting best construction systems from the globe for faster delivery of quality, sustainable & affordable houses across India (c) Vulnerability Atlas of India Prior to this assignment, devoted 20 years to provide S&T backup in the area of building science & technology in the capacity of scientist at CSIR-CBRI with special emphasis on earthquake engineering., structural dynamics, distressed structures, repair & rehabilitation, computer aided structural analysis & design through continued R&D with quality objectives in applied research, societal based R&D programmes, resource generation, and publications Published around 100 research papers in journals, conferences, five books and a few dissemination & training CDs. Avid speaker in the area of alternate technologies & disaster resistant construction Widely travelled in India and abroad for various national and international missions
Abstract
Urban India is transforming at an unprecedented rate as regards urban renaissance is concerned. Besides, Atal mission for rejuvenation and urban transformation (AMRUT), there are other flagship programmes run by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs such as Smart Cities Mission, Swachh Bharat (Urban) Mission, Heritage City Development & Augmentation (HRIDAY) Scheme, Urban Transport & Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U). The PMAY-U has been the landmark in the annals of India history where it is dreamt to provide shelter security to one and all. It is one of the biggest missions ever thought of around the globe with the objective of providing 1.1224 crore houses. Under the mission, 1.1864 crore houses have been sanctioned, out of which 1.1441 crore houses are grounded and 85.55 lakh houses are completed/delivered to beneficiaries. More than 16 lakh houses are being constructed with emerging construction technologies in various States. It is high time to bring paradigm shift in the traditional construction practices through sustainable technologies which can speed up delivery of quality durable houses. The global pandemic COVID-19 have further accelerated disruption in the construction sector and modularization, standardization, off-site construction, introduction of new and lighter materials, safety and sustainability are going to be new normal in the sector. The cast-in-place brick by brick construction and RCC beam-column construction are the things of past and are slow track construction practices. Also, it has been realized that these methodologies often offer time & cost overruns and are unsustainable in the long run. The world over, building construction has been shifted from site to the factory where building components partially or fully are manufactured and then transported to the site for their erection, assembly and finishing. This is known as typically precast or prefabricated construction where building components as a whole or in parts are cast in the factory. In addition, there are other options also such as replacing the wall by sandwich panels or creating a customized formwork for the building or manufacturing the entire three-dimensional building in the factory which can be pre-finished or printing the building layer by layer manufacturing at site. Most of these techniques are time- tested and proven and it is high time that we look at these global construction practices and adapt them to suit Indian conditions. These are fast track construction systems with much improved structural & functional performance, better durability, low life-cycle cost, resource-efficient, with minimum wastages, air & land pollution than the cast-in-situ RCC construction. In order to have an integrated approach for comprehensive technical & financial evaluation of emerging and proven building materials & technologies, their standardization, developing specifications and code of practices, evolving necessary tendering process, capacity building and creating appropriate delivery mechanism, MoHUA set up a Technology Sub-Mission (TSM) under PMAY-U with the Mission statement as ‘Sustainable Technological Solutions for Faster and Cost Effective Construction of Houses suiting to Geo-Climatic and Hazard Conditions of the Country’.
