Implementation of Precast Technology in India-Opportunities and Challenges

Rapid economic growth and limited availability of affordable land have restricted the horizontal mode of construction leading to vertical construction in most of the Indian cities. Urban India is mostly marked by tall buildings that are being built. Due to the economic slowdown and some governmental interventions, these building projects are seeing significant time and cost overrun, ultimately impacting the end-user. As these market pressures rise more and more, real estate developers are considering to adopt emerging technologies to compensate for these construction issues. Indian construction industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from traditional methods of construction to modern methods of construction. Precast technology is one such move which is expected to enhance the productivity of the construction process, thereby, optimizing the requirement of resources on the site, reducing waste generation and resulting in a faster delivery of the projects. While internationally precast technology is considered as a mature technology, in India, it is not widely utilized, despite the advantages. Commonly cited constraints are high costs in comparison to traditional construction, economies of scale, logistics, skill level required, end user friendliness, etc. Primarily, this study focusses on identifying the challenges faced by the precast technology under various categories. This study also presents a cost analysis model for precast technology versus traditional construction to address some of the challenges. Presented cost model is applied to two projects wherein precast technology and conventional technology are utilized to construct the project and an inference is drawn comparing the time and cost aspects of precast technology. Amicable solutions are proposed for adoption of precast construction from an Indian perspective.