Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 25, 2015 :

Odisha government will use pre-cast technology in construction of affordable housing to economically weaker sections in Bhubaneswar.

Many Indian realty majors are adopting precast technology in building their latest projects. The main advantages of precast technology are quality, speed of construction, and a value-for-money product.

To avoid labour shortage, time delays and with an aim to deliver quality products, developers and builders are now adopting precast technology. The use of such technology helps in saving up to 64% of the time taken for similar projects using normal construction methods and technology. In other words, if normal brick-and-mortar method takes one year to complete a project, the precast method takes about four months.

This technology consists of custom-designed precast concrete components like roof slabs, beams, columns, wall panels, etc, which offer flexibility in shape and size with a variety of surface finishes and colours. This technology promises a world of creative possibilities in application and design. This offers an abundance of choice for the architect and engineers to create buildings unique in character and of exceptionally high quality, officials said.

Meanwhile, a technical committee has finalized bid documents for such projects and is now under the examination by the finance department to kick off the projects, sources said.

The matter was deliberated on Saturday at a high level meeting held under chairmanship of chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati, who insisted on adopting this technology by Bhubaneswar Development Authority [BDA] to reduce the time required for construction of housing projects and cost escalation in the process.

The BDA vice-chairman, Krishan Kumar, present in the meeting appraised that the recommendations of the committee. BDA has been directed to expedite the process for grounding of such housing projects.

Pati asked the additional chief secretary, finance R. Balkrishnan to examine the financial details and finalize the bid document within a week. Development Commissioner U.N. Behera, director of estates, Ram Narayan Dash along with senior officers from concerned departments participated in discussions.