What next for the real estate & Construction sector in India "COVID & AFTER"
Construction philosophy
Speakers:- Arun Sahai, Shiva Senathipathy, Jayant Vaitha, Jayram Panch, Cherian John, K
Lava, Gouridasan Nair.
Date:- 03-05 time – 11.00 am
The webinar was a panel discussion on situation of construction sector in India before and
after Covid-19. Unlike sectors like financial services, retail, manufacturing or IT, construction
engineering sector requires the physical presence of a large workforce – both skilled and
unskilled in concentrated circles. There are generally, low levels of technology interaction in
such projects which fall even lower in government and public sector projects. Total projects
worth more than INR 59000 billion are under development in India, most of which would
have been impacted severely by COVID – 19. There are numerous such construction
companies across the country, which are supporting the needs of construction labour in
lockdown period. This is adding to stress across construction value chain and impacting the
economy. Construction activity slows down during monsoon and hence the period between
March and June is considered ideal for construction productivity. What are the steps to be
followed to plan a revival for the sector? Step 1 is to prioritize the projects. Step 2 is to revisit
project definition and delivery strategy. Step 3 is to build resilience and avoiding them to
become fragile. Step 4 is to strengthen contractual provisions. Labour and capital can be
expected to be in short supply once the restriction ends. Thus there needs to be a
framework in place to prioritise projects over a 30 to 45 days’ window. Project owners must
optimise engineering layouts with a focus on target value design. They must explore off-site
modular construction technologies to optimise time and resources while enabling a
controlled working environment for labours. India's goal of becoming a five trillion-dollar
economy rests on the completion of critical infrastructure under the National Infrastructure
Plan.