INDIA – BHARAT

Infrastructure – Built Environment

Challenges Causes & Remedies

• Er.P. Surya Prakash
• Mentor-Smart Infr-EST
• 9393348484 Hyderabad

India is fastest growing economy with 2^nd Highest population.

Indian government taking up many development projects such as Housing for All by 2022, Water supply to Rural and Urban areas, Education infrastructure, Urban Transport, Highways, Rural Road Connectivity, Defense – Border Connectivity, Irrigation, Power etc. In addition Real Estate thro’ Regulation – RERA spending Millions of Crores of Rupees every year. Challenge is How Much of it is Effective in terms of :-

• Fund Utilization
• Fund Deployment
• Achieving the Objective
• Achieving the desired Quality
• Functional Performance
• Procurement
• Timely Delivery – Escalations

We have umpteen reports by erstwhile planning commission, CAG on failures in Fund utilization & Fund deployment and effective spending. Construction spending is second biggest GDP growth driver in the economy. But Many Challenges listed and unlisted in this note. The causes are –

Institutional Mechanism by-passed : The Project planning and implementation shall be the responsibility of the Engineering departments all the sectors. We have seen success in many areas where Metro Rail implementation was successful because of the Honest and right implementation process devised and developed by Er. E. Sreedharan. Highway Project planned and implemented in early 21^st century as Golden Quadrilateral in record time of 4 years. But we are seeing many irrigation projects with few exceptions being delayed beyond imagination like 15 years to 20 years. Housing projects for the poor being implemented for last 3 decades but Poor still living in pathetic conditions. Urban infrastructure in bad states – Roads, Drainage, Waste management, Water supply, Traffic, Built Environment – None of them are incomparable to any of the smaller economies even. Rural water supply, in spite of spending 80,000 Cr.,In 5 years , with objective of reaching out to 35% of population, could only reach to 5% after spending 95% of the funds.

The causes are – Planning, Procurement & Implementation shall be the sole responsibility of the Engineering departments. They should also be made accountable. Over last two decades the process has been diluted and most of the decisions are taken by Political establishments and Procurement norms are frequently amended by Cabinet decisions. Many Projects NITs are called even without proper DPR or Technical sanctions. This resulted in Litigations and projects become non-starters.

EPC procurement method is mostly misused, when FRD and Project outcomes are not defined properly. These have resulted in impractical Internal Bench marks, ambiguous Functional Requirements, No standard technical specifications, mismatch or tailor made eligibility criteria etc.

In the case of Housing for poor the reach of the policy is not even effective for  10%, until the recent Housing For all policy. The end user also is made stake holder with affordable participation. But even such good policies could end up in failure, unless robust procurement policy with accountable implementing agencies is made, without political interference.

 Even in the case of Real Estate after well thought over policy of RERA, the effective implementation paradigm is yet to be seen. Many gaps unless strong Professional Engineer is made to be accountable for all the Standard Operating Process in Real Estate Development. Such as Project Conceiving, Feasibility reports, Project specifications and Project management including the facility management for five years. But this is not followed in 80% of the developments and Builders lobby influencing the governments to dilute the spirit of RERA.

Uniform Building Bye laws: GOI has issued UBBL by amending the NBC in 2016. But again in the name of Citizen friendly approach or ease of doing business, The governments have by passed Engineering planning or Supervision and fixing accountability in the name of simplifying the process. The smaller constructions in Rural, Towns and districts contribute to 70% of construction activity and if this is not regulated, Safety, Quality and effective use of Construction material resources will be in Question.

Effective inter Professional roles & Responsibilities. There are 100s of litigations in the High courts between COA and other professionals until recent Supreme Court Judgement on 17^th March clarifying the Architects Act ’72 and its intent. The act has been misinterpreted and misrepresented by the lobby over 4+ decades which has resulted in demotivating the engineering professionals and bringing the engineering profession to insignificant state, which has resulted in unutilized technical talent. Many government departments and ULBs are unaware of this factual position and still call NITs qualifying only Architects whose competence is limited in Project delivery. Because 90% of project planning and implementation involves engineering disciplines and 70% of it civil engineering in any of the built environment projects. There is immediate need to correct the anamoly.

Engineers Act: Probably India is the only country among few, which has not enacted and recognized the engineering profession. Presently Government AICTE as nodal agency and appointed a committee without any representation from the industry. Once Bill is enacted the respective Institutions and Associations Like (IEI, ACCEI, IAStructE, CEAI, (Electrical, Fire, Plumbing, HVAC) Etc.) to be made responsible for implementing according Professional Engineer status and this shall also be applicable to all the Government Department/PSU/Undertakings engineers to have PE registration with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accountable by appointing Board of Chief Engineers in every state and Central Government as the Body to take all decisions.

Remedies:

1. Engineers ACT 2020 to expedite and enact the Draft Bill
2. Architects Act Status Quo
3. UBBL to have Building Inspectorate making Engineers Accountable for safety and Economy
4. All Government projects implementation shall be through Departments and Board of Chief Engineers at State and Central Government, PSUs, Government Undertaking.
5. Continuing Professional Development to be made compulsory for all engineers.
6. Skill development & CPD for Engineers to be brought under CSR
7.  RERA to have Engineers or PEs accountable for all the compliances.
8.  Government departments, PSU & Undertakings to strictly implement NITs calling for Consultants and not just Architects. Uniform Procurement norms for Consultants is to be made mandatory by implementing Subjective QCBS system, Author can elaborate on this.
9.  All educational institutions to engage Adjunct faculty and to be strictly monitored for quality and responsible engineers. Presently 80% of Engineers graduated are not employable.
10.  Any project implementation involving construction or construction materials of value more than INR 10 Lacs to be planned, supervised, monitored and certified by Professional engineers.

 

Engineers Groups Message to all engineers in India to join together.

All are born perform a duty to mankind. 

A few chose to work for providing basic facilities and infrastructure for civilisation. House, water, Irrigation, Industry, Power, Transport, Environment, Urbanisation, Communication many more. 

Engineering is a dream for everyone. 

Engineering demands Originality, Intelligence, Innovation, Focus, Passion. 

Civil Engineers Work for Civilians’ needs. 

But Today for this most important and deserving people who are dedicated to work are the following challenges. 

1. Misinterpretation and misuse of Architect Act- Result 100s of litigations by COA in last 4+ decades. Today Supreme Court closed the curtains by clarifying the Act and intent and confirmed the exploitation. But humongous damage is done in the 48 years by demotivating Civil engineers. Now is the time to join together to grab our right by standing united to earn our rightful dignity respect by deserving demanding our share of 90% of service cost of built environment. 
2. Engineers or engineering profession aren’t defined or recognised by our Indian constitution even after 72 years of independence. We have to highlight to law makers about importance of enactment of engineers bill. 

This is in the interest of society at large and built environment in particular. 

3. Every micro small or medium construction needs to be planned and supervised engineers in the interest of safety and conservation of natural resources. 

Bye law not insisting on engineering process shall be questioned and amended in the interest of public safety and protecting depleting natural resources. 

Every ULB DTCP should made aware by vociferous representation by engineers. 

4. Every constructed facility needs to be as per Standards and planned as per National Building Code which can be implemented and enforced by engineers. Hence engineers only have to lead the project. Every administrator Implementing Engineering department should be enlightened about this and write Clarifying letters. 
5. Engineers to Unite -Academicians and researchers to educate and create great engineers and engineering for future generations. 

-all Engineering department engineers at state and central government to take engineers and engineering to the pinnacle. 

-all engineers practicing Engineering and working for engineering to command the respect and deserving  social status. 

– engineers in law makers to help achieve these objectives 

-engineer entrepreneurs developers builders industrialists to protect engineers and engineering process. 

– engineers in administration to order & implement rules that are important to constructed facilities 

– india has 1000+ associations with membership ranging from 200 to 80,000 with many intersecting objectives and members with common objective of welfare of engineers and engineering. 

While their independence and freedom is appreciated, the immediate importance to join together and work together to strengthen the engineering profession and enhance employment opportunities and employability of both fresh and experienced engineers is highlighted. 

-it’s time to gain this momentum using technology by meeting periodically to discuss deliberate decide and implement to enhance our position. 

Action.

1.  Unite all engineers and engineering associations- Connect 
2. Have weekly action plan for every associations in synchronised manner. Representation, Memorandum, petition, Writ
3. Identify action groups 

– associations uniting all presidents 

– legal drafting – 

– Public Relations -PR

– Fund rising -all secretaries &treasures 

– Lobby with law makers and administrators 

– Government Engineers protection. 

Er. P. Surya Prakash 

Engineers Open Forum 

Week-2   07/06/20

Engineers Message

Need to connect with all practising professional engineers across the country. 

Hope you are aware of the Supreme Court judgement recently. Building/Layout planning and design is not the sole domain of Architects as claimed by them misinterpreting Architect Act 1972. It protects only the title of Architect and not the practice. 

Now Architects through COA are attempting to initiate amendments to the act taking entire domain of construction under the act. 

If they succeed, 100s of 1000s of engineers in towns and districts whose livelihood is planning and design would lose the right to practise the profession and may have to play second fiddle to Architects. 

In india Engineers or Engineering profession is not defined in the constitution. Many efforts to get an Engineers ACT have not been successful so far. 

IEI Has 80k Civil Engineering members and 130 centres across country and support our fraternity. 

There are many local body engineers associations which are not connected at state level or national level. 

It’s time to bring all engineers through these local associations on to state level federations and connect the state federations at national level. 

ACCEI

IAStructE

CEAI

ECI

APGCE 

GRACE 

CEV INDIA

Are the associations which are already working together and taking up many legal issues and have been successful. 

Now we propose to take up the issues concerning all the engineers practising at national level. We must unite protect our profession. We must take care our welfare. 

If engineers are protected,

Engineers protect Engineering. 

If Engineering is protected, 

Built Environment is Protected. 

Protected Built Environment provide safe and Comfortable living to humanity. 

Join our attempt to unite engineers across india ??. 

We will share action plan to all the engineers through the associations. 

Looking forward. 

Er. P. Surya Prakash 

9393348484

Hyderabad 

Connect to me on Facebook, LinkedIn, telegram