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GUEST ARTICLE INDUSTRY WATCH - PRECAST CONCRETE

Message from the MD’s desk not, the critical path of the entire project then depends on these
Being a Precaster in India ourselves, since more than a decade, in CIS junctions and their few labour. We are of the firm view, based
the first 3-4 years of operations itself we conculded that if Precast on our experience that Installation of upper floors should not be
as a Technology and Industry as a whole, has to survive and halted due to CIS junctions. Installation of columns and walls of
succeed or in fact, “not fail”, like several notable ventures/ projects upper floor should take place independent of CIS screed or CIS
over the past decade unfortunately have, it is very important to DE- junctions
LINK the Precast Concrete elements (almost 95% of the quantum) The birth of the PIC has taken place by this very thought - if you
and the CIS junctions (hardly 5%) want to succeed and be profitable to take the real advantage
The whole advantage of precasting is lost when at site, one has of the Precasting in the factory, then the junctions must be done
to again pour CIS concrete, that too in miniscule quantities at without CIS concrete, and rather with the help of a chosen trusted
the junctions. This takes time, effort, energy and resources while few in-house labour who are trained well in grouting
creating coordination issues and ultimately, gives birth to an overall One of the reasons of Precast India’s successes is this mind-set
time and cost overrun which more often than not, cannot even be and continuous innovation and the blessings of good Structural
quantified and ultimately kills profits by increasing overheads and Engineers and of course, Clients, along the way who appreciated
rising tensions due to uncontrollable delays this approach and allowed us to implement these innovations for
According to us, similar to the technological advancement in the past 6-7 years
the production process of Precast Technology, there was an
urgent need to also innovate the connection processes, but not For more details visit: www.precastindia.co.in
necessarily in an expensive manner, but by
thinking of some ingenious and simple ideas
which can be implemented easily in the
design, detailing, production and installation
stages
Usually dividing the Precast Project into
multiple agencies is a recipe for disaster.
While companies need to take their own
decisions whether to hire cranes or trailers
via agencies or invest in them as capital,
is a difficult decision, but certainly, by
eliminating CIS junctions, the business
owners can definitely eliminate one agency
and reduce the risk of dependency on
multiple agencies. Usually, it is observed that
since the quantum of CIS junctions in walls
and columns is low, the rates demanded
by such agencies are unreasonably high,
but unfortunately, rightly so. Although
the quantum (from cost and effort) is low
compared to the project cost, believe it or

54 CONSTRUCTION OPPORTUNITIES|APRIL 2023