While widening the roads, the existing crust should be recycled to the extent possible and the balance used in secondary construction works. It has been noticed that while widening of roads, most of the existing bridges and culverts even those which are just 20-30 years old are dismantled and reconstructed. That cannot be considered as judicious use of public funds. In a seminar recently organized by CEAI a mention was made that in our country the average life of bridges is less than 35 years; that is truly alarming.

Most of the highway projects since the past decade are being constructed in EPC or HAM mode in which the contractor/concessionaire prepares the designs and drawings. The goal is to economise the cost and also speed up construction. However, it has been observed that the time periods assigned for carrying out and checking the designs drawings and carrying out the construction are not adequate to enable proper quality outputs.

There is a strong need for carrying out regular checks and audits of the design and construction as well as of the construction done in the last two decades or so to assess their remaining life and where necessary take measures to prolong it.

There is also the alarming trend of low tenders being submitted – at 20% to 40% below the estimated cost. This matter has been talked about many times but positive action to stem them needs to be taken and implemented post haste. When the estimated costs are prepared based on accepted methods of costing and also considering the market rates it is necessary to know as to whether the quantities assessed are proper or the rates considered are high. The quality of design and construction should both be closely monitored, checked and certified by deploying the requisite manpower. Reports in the media point to a large number of structures failing during construction itself leave alone short service life. For the latter, if the structures are not durable, the result could be disastrous.

Digitalisation, deployment of IoT and providing sensors – embedded or on surface can go a long way to monitor construction quality and the performance during the service life of the infrastructure that is constructed. The additional investment will go a long way in ensuring the requisite quality and thus the design service life of the built infrastructure. All the same the supervision should be proper. The estimated time of completion should be realistic so that quality is not compromised at any stage. Ultimately it is the country’s name that is at stake.

For the works to be robust, reliable, sustainable, and fit for purpose for their design service life it is important to that durability and maintainability also be parameters and not just financial economy. Normally while working out the life cycle cost the design service life is taken as 100 years. An analysis should also be done that if the design service life is just 50 years, then what will be the financial burden – direct and indirect in the future when structures become unusable in say just around 30-50 years. A cue should be taken from the other countries where they are being hard put to replace/ rebuild their crumbling infrastructure.

A one-day Conference on was held on “Recent Development of Laws and their Impact in Construction Industry” by the CEAI- Western Region on 18th October 2024 at Taj President, Mumbai, which was welcomed by the participants who were seeking encapsulated updates.

The SEPC-CEAI Global Services Export Conclave on “Design, Engineering, Construction, Space, Energy (incl. Nuclear) and Defence” in which CEAI was a partner was held on the 29th of October at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi. It was very well attended and appreciated.

CEAI Awards 2024 have also been announced. All are requested to participate and showcase their projects and the countries achievements.

Elections for the Governing Council for the term 2025 – 2026 have also been announced. Interested members are requested to file their nominations by 4:00 pm of 15-11-2024.

Warm regards,
R S Sharma