Indian construction industry asked to increase use of steel

India's massive construction sector must increase the use of structural steel to accelerate the development of commercial and residential complexes while retaining the indigenous cultural appearances, renowned architects have said here.

These calls were made by an engineer and an architect at the Business Excellence & Research Group awards (BERG) held in Singapore last night.

The construction sector should consider using pre- engineered steel components in accelerating development process in new buildings, said Jacob Jose, director at Bangalore-based Methods (India) Pvt Ltd.

"A shift from the concrete-based conventional method of constructing buildings to steel structures will half the completion time to two years," said Jose at the Singapore-based BERG awards for builders, developers, architects and designers.

"We have fabricated steel for plants, and it is a time for the construction industry to scale up the use of such pre-engineered structure to accelerate the pace of completing buildings," he said.

The increasing use of steel, which is at the lowest price level currently, would also help reduce construction cost, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, architect A R Saiju Mohamed has called for maintaining India's rich culture and heritage in designing new buildings.

"Let us not harm the diversity of India. Let us preserve the culture," said Mohamed, the principal architect of insight Architects based in Thiruvananthapuram.

The annual awards were given to projects completed in India last year.

Nana Nani Homes, a model project in Coimbatore by Ananya Shelters Pvt Ltd, was judged among the best accommodation solutions for retirement.

Among other awardees, Insight Architects won the best interior design award for a restaurant, The Dhaba Project, in Trivandrum.

The awards also honored architect Uttam C Jain with a life time achievement award, and his sharing of knowledge of building projects across Asia.

The Mumbai-based founder of UCJ Architecture & Environment has formerly served as chairman of the All India Board of Architecture and lectured at institutes in India and Singapore.