Builders adopting prefab units to control costs

Due to acute shortage of labour and owing to the rise in raw material prices, real estate developers are setting up prefabrication plants to increase the pace of construction and reduce project costs.Labour costs have seen an increase of 50 per cent while prices of raw materials such as steel, cement and bricks saw an increase of 25 per cent between 2009 and 2011. However developers are relying on prefabs that promise to save one third of construction time and 10 – 15 per cent in terms of cost in the long run. A number of developers in the South such as Janapriya, Supertech, Brigade group and Trigunaas Build-Tech have adopted the prefab technology which involves making concrete walls and slabs at a manufacturing facility, transporting them to the construction site and then installing them. According to a recent World Bank report, the Indian construction industry is projected to face a shortage of labour of around 18 – 28 per cent if the country grows at a medium rate. Though companies building low-cost housing have been using the technology successfully, recent developers like Janapriya are using prefabs to develop affordable and mid-income housing. Supertech, a Noida based developer is currently investing ` 200 crore to set up a pre-fab plant in Greater Noida and has already raised a debt of ` 50 crore from a bank. The company plans to utilize pre fabricated walls and slabs for their mid-income and affordable homes project.  Certain companies are also importing prefab moulds from Malaysia and Germany for their low income housing projects.

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