Indian Housing Technology Mela at Lucknow a big draw

Participants at the IHTM displayed a wide range of technology, like innovation in cement and concrete, environment-friendly and employment generating indigenously developed bamboo corrugated roofing sheets and ridge cap and bamboo wood.

Block made from crop residues and industrial waste of fly ash, lime sludge and slags from steel industry; pre-cast clay hollow blocks made of silt and industrial waste, insulated roofing and walling components, integrated cost effective precast concrete solutions; light gauge steel structural systems were also on dispsy.

Also on display were stay in place form work system, innovative door system, new generation waterproofing and construction chemicals, earth quake resistant confined masonry etc. Many of the technologies have great potential to be used across the country for construction of low to medium houses, including individual houses constructed under Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC) vertical of PMAY (U). 

IHTM is displaying compressed stabilised mud block system from Auroville, Puducherry. It also demonstrates robotic block laying machine developed by a start-up from Hyderabad.

These technologies are being evaluated by a Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) set up by MoHUA for their technical parameters and further use infield.

IHTM participants are from across the country, from private and government sectors; representatives of technology providers of proven and potential technologies; manufacturers, building centres, innovators from IITs, R&D institutes; state/local bodies, implementing agencies of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) and agencies involved in six Light house Projects (LHPs) initiated in six different states as a part of Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India).The foundation stone of LHPs was laid by the prime minister on 1 January 2021.

Meanwhile, parallel sessions are being hosted at the three-day event constantly with prominent speakers on varied topics ranging from Innovative Construction Technologies, RERA, Slum-Free cities and Inclusive Housing. The sessions were held under the umbrella of Swatch Bharat Mission, SMART Cities Mission, DAY-NULM and PMAY(U).

On Day 1, two sessions were hosted on the theme ‘How smart cities are re-imagining public spaces’ and ‘Urban Transformation through smart city campaign - How do we ensure institutionalisation and behavioural change’. 

A session was hosted on ‘Mainstreaming Innovative Construction Technologies for Low and Mid-Rise Houses’. Discussions and deliberations were made on use of innovative building materials, processes and technologies in the construction sector and on strategy for standardisation, propagation, demonstration and construction using indigenous/innovative technologies. Building entrepreneurship and mainstreaming innovations in the construction sector, specially for low and mid-rise construction, was discussed. 

Another parallel session included discussions on Strengthening RERA to promote the Real Estate Sector. MoHUA created a platform for all industry leaders with representatives from NAREDCO, CREDAI and various others industry associations, along with research firms to share learnings, different aspects of RERA and how it will develop the real estate sector. The objective was to strengthen the implementation of  RERA and ensure accountability and transparency in the real estate sector. It would give a fillip to the affordable housing sector in the country and instil confidence in home buyers.

A seminar on ‘Inclusive Housing’ under Awas Par Samvaad initiative of PMAY(U) was held. As part of Awas Par Samvaad, 75 workshops were to be held across states/UTs to discuss and share learnings on housing and various themes surrounding it. 

Another parallel session on Slum Free Cities was also hosted. MoHUA discussed as to how various states have dealt with slum redevelopment. The experience of Odisha government on land rights to 1.75 lakh slum dwellers under JAGA mission, and similar model of Punjab government of giving land titles was shared.

The session on Innovative Construction Technologies in the Construction Sector saw a brainstorming of ideas on how technology providers of innovative construction technologies can be connected with developers and academicians for wider reach of the technology. 

The core of the discussion at the expo-cum-conference was how market opportunities could be provided to them.