`With our WAN application, hundreds of construction sites can be monitored’

The construction industry sustains 17 per cent of the country’s population and indirectly sustains another 16.5 per cent of the total population. So directly and indirectly, the livelihood of 23 per cent of the Indian population is dependent on the construction industry.

Earlier, there was a problem of perception and construction was often confused with the housing industry. We have been able to remove this misnomer.

The reason why Constro’2000 is important is that we are just two years away fromthe WTO regime. With the coming in of the WTO regime, far more smarter and powerful people will be competing with the domestic industry. What is of concern to us is that such a large population which is dependent on the construction industry for its livelihood cannot be allowed to be in jeopardy. We have to identify the problems, deliberate on them and find out how best we can solve them.

Everything isn’t primitive about the construction industry. Things have begun to improve. For instance, earlier it used to take 36 to 50 months to build a bridge. Then someone did it in 18 months and now bridges are being build in four to five months. So its a question setting standards.

How will the WTO regime make life difficult for construction workers?
The real problem that the Indian construction industry is facing today is that 87 per cent of the 31 million people that the industry sustains are completely illiterate. They have no formal education, whatsoever. When mechanisation takes place, it would bevery difficult to rehabilitate them. It’s like disinvesting in a public sector enterprise. One has to give these people special skills so that they can carry on with life. But here the situation is precarious because these people are not even trained in elementary education. This would be one major fallout of the WTO regime that I am concerned about.

Isn’t information technology beginning to change the face of this industry in a small way? What exactly is CIDC doing in this particular area?
We are working on a multi-nodal solution. With the help of this, a construction company can monitor hundreds of construction sites at one time. This multi-nodal solution is a wide area network application (WAN) which would be formally launched sometime in March. With the help of this application, the day-to-day progress of work, the availability of construction equipment, inventory situation, profit-and-loss account and lots more can be known each day, about hundreds of construction sites. Even constructionequipment can be utilised to the optimum.

Even though some private companies are using information technology even today, none are doing it at such a large scale. In the private sector, the fruits are not shared. In the case of CIDC, the application will be available to all.

CIDC is also trying to develop more instruments for risk assessment, management, and mitigation. We are also developing new insurance instruments for the construction industry.

Last year, CIDC had announced a grading process in association with ICRA. How has it been perceived?
The grading process is picking up very well. The first set of gradings comprising of one large and one mid-size construction company, have already been announced. The next lot, comprising of construction companies as well as the consultants would also be released soon. With a number of requests in hand, a very realistic assessment of capabilities would be available to all concerned in the near future, and this would make a positive qualitativedifference.