The Hindu Business Line : Sterling Const offers training to farm hands

Mumbai, June 3 A low-cost housing project in a distant suburb of Mumbai has thrown up employment opportunities for the local farming population and an additional means of livelihood for them as well.

Philippines-based Sterling Construction Systems, a firm promoting quick low-cost housing technology, is imparting construction skills to the local population in Karjat and Neral, which are about 100 km away from the metropolis.

The company has a trained a workforce of about 400 and plans to scale up the number of the semi-skilled to about 4000. “The labourers we get are mostly farmers and it is easier to teach unskilled people than those who have worked on construction sites,” says SCS Chairman, Mr Mark Taylor.

The workers are paid about Rs 250 a day and undergo a seven to 10-day training schedule. The technology does not involve plastering or brickwork.

SCS has bagged an Rs 4,800-crore contract from Matheran Realty to build two lakh ‘affordable homes’ of 300-500sqft at Karjat. London-based Eredene Capital, an AIM listed real estate investment firm, has assured an investment of Rs. 131.2 crore for the project. Sterling is also constructing a two million sqft high-end golf course and two lakh sqft three star vacation home in Neral.

Matheran Realty plans to offer eight million sqft a year. The first Matheran project, an integrated township of four million sqft, near Karjat railway station is to be priced at Rs 999 a sqft.

The real estate arm of Mahindra and Mahindra, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, has evinced interest in the technology, though Mr Pawan Malhotra, Managing Director, Mahindra Lifespace, said he was a little apprehensive of the number of floors than can be built using the technology.

The General Secretary of the Builders Association of India, Mr. Anand Gupta, says such load-bearing structures have their advantages and were more suitable for tier 2 and 3 cities. “For over four floors we recommend the pillar and beam structure,” says Mr. Taylor, adding that he had constructed a 38-storeyed high rise in Manila. SCS has a presence in Qatar, Jordan and Australia, apart from Philippines, where the company has trained the workforce of over 45 developers.

Sterling’s proprietary ‘concrete building’ technology is based on pre-engineered formwork systems. Inputs are fibre cement boards (8x4 ft boards), light gauge steel studs and concrete, unlike the conventional use of bricks, cement said and stone aggregate. Inlaid plumbing and electrical lines provision eliminate uneven plastering. The walls are four inches thick, inclusive of the board. The boards are shipped from the Philippines. The sqft rate of construction works out to Rs 600-700.

The savings, a combination of swift construction and material, would be over 30 per cent as ideally, a two storeyed 3,000 sqft building can be built in about seven weeks,” says Mr. Taylor.