Urban affairs secretary Manoj Joshi flags delays, poor quality in many CPWD projects

He said the private sector was ahead of the government in using new building technologies, but the CPWD had also been using steel structures and 3D technology, among others. He added that the CPWD should publicise this and push new technology in small towns.

On the issue of delays, he said while the CPWD had been constructing buildings at a fast pace, compared to its earlier track record, in the past five to six years there had been “a large number” of projects running behind schedule.

“We can blame the contractors, cash-flow problems or incompetence of contractor, or contractors quoting low rates, but the fact is that there are buildings taking five years, six years, and clients complaining that buildings are taking a long time. The purpose of using new technology is that the buildings don’t take a long time. Theoretically we can construct a building in two to three years time, but that’s not happening everywhere,” he said.

He flagged concerns over the quality of the construction, particularly the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) services.

“In India, I think we are far behind other countries in terms of quality of buildings. Our costs are lower, but they are still just structure and not MEP [mechanical, electrical, plumbing] driven. Any of our buildings, we can’t call them at the cutting edge of MEP construction. In modern-day buildings, the structure is the easier part. You need to be extremely incompetent to mess up with structures and we are doing that. You have seen it around in the NCR and different places by different organisations, whether it’s the use of water or inappropriate design, we keep seeing bad structures,” Joshi said.

He cited the Jio World Centre in Mumbai as an example of superior MEP services and asked the CPWD to send its officials to see such projects in India and abroad.