Message from the Chairman (CIDC) ……………..

All of us were overjoyed when the Padma Bhushan award was conferred upon Shri. G.V. Ramakrishna, Chairman Emeritus, CIDC. His contribution towards good governance, establishing institutions and the development of the Indian Construction Industry has been recognized through the award. A felicitation function was organized at Delhi wherein CIDC members, and several senior colleagues and organizations connected with CIDC, participated to congratulate and convey their best wishes to Shri G.V. Ramakrishna.

Two eminent stalwarts of the Construction Industry and our Board members, Dr. Som Datt and Mr. Jai Prakash Gaur were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award by the Builders' Association of India. Our heartiest congratulations. They were felicitated by CIDC at a dinner on 15th March 05.

To deliberate on vital issues of concern to the Construction Industry, CIDC organizes an annual conference. This year the main theme of the event is proposed as "Development of Physical Infrastructure - Synergic Approach". The event is proposed for 20-22 October 2005 and I look forward to the active participation of the Construction Industry.

Uddesh Kohli

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From the Desk of the Director General ……

It is indeed a matter of pride for CIDC that Shri G.V. Ramakrishna, Chairman Emeritus, CIDC has been conferred the Padma Bhushan Award for his outstanding service to the nation. His efforts in the founding years of CIDC have been crucial for the establishment of CIDC as an organization to work for the benefit of the Construction Industry. He has worked relentlessly to bring all the stakeholders on the common platform of CIDC.

I take this opportunity to thank all those who have come forward and supported the school training promramme by taking the students as interns (details are given elsewhere in this news letter).

While it is important to highlight the Construction Industry at the National level, it is also important that the Industry is highlighted and issues of concerns deliberated at the State level. It is in this context that a conference on Infrastructure Development was organized at Bhopal, MP for the Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh states. The event attracted substantial participation renewing the focus on the Industry.

A working arrangement with Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC) has been established to setup the CIDC-SIAC center for dispute resolution in the Construction Industry. Apart from establishing the center there is a program for training and accreditation of Arbitrators.

P R Swarup

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• Secretary to the Govt. of India 1983-1988 (Till retirement)

• Advisor to the Government of Tamil Nadu 1988 – 89

• Ambassador of India to the European Union 1989-90

• Chairman, SEBI 1990-94

• Member Planning Commission 1994-95

• Chairman, Disinvestment Commission 1996-99

• Member – Prime Ministers’ Economic Advisory Council – 1997-99

• Chairman, Construction Industry Development Council, New Delhi 1996 – June 2003 and Chairman Emeritus from July 2003

• Chairman, ICRA Grading Committee for the Construction Industry

• Chairman, Group of Advisors, Indian Banks Association 1998-2000

• Chairman, Local Advisory Group, Bank of America 2002-2003

• Awarded Padma Bhushan by Govt. of India on 26th January, 2005

A felicitation ceremony was organized at Delhi on February 10, 2005 by CIDC in which a large but select gathering was present to convey their best wishes to Mr. Ramakrishna.

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Seminar on Infrastructure Development in Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, March 11-12, 2005, Bhopal

CIDC in association with Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya organized a twoday Seminar on “Infrastructure Development in Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh” during 11-12 March 2005 at Bhopal. The event was supported by Ministry of Higher & Technical Education, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, Builders’ Association of India, MP and Building Centre, Samrat Ashok Technological Institute, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.

The objective of the event was to highlight the issue of infrastructure development in MP & Chhattisgarh and also to propose a set of recommendations for all the stakeholders.

While the issue of infrastructure development of the nation is being highlighted at the national level, it is imperative that the States also take active part in the development and progress exercise.

This initiative was aimed to bring all the stakeholders on a common platform so as to synergize the development process. The areas that were highlighted are:

• Roads & Bridges

• Buildings & Services

• Use of IT in Infrastructure Development

• Contract Management & Dispute resolution

• Human Resource Development and It’s Social impact

• Quality control and related lowest rate syndrome

• Divergence of Technology, Quality, Safety & Environment standards.

• Divergence of accounting standards, norms & regulation.

• Divergence of financing systems for the industry.

• Absence of comprehensive facilitating Bodies specifically for the Construction Industry.

• Multiple clearance standards in the various states departments.

• Low level of harmonized systems for evaluation of stakeholders and for disclosure norms.

• Diversity of standards of Engineering qualifications and practicing engineers, supervisors and workers.

• Lack of certified, skilled workers in Construction Industry.

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Orientation Workshop on Arbitration at Singapore

CIDC and Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) jointly organized an orientation workshop on arbitration of Indian arbitrators during 3-5 February 2005 at Singapore. This programme was organized under the aegis of “CIDC-SIAC International Arbitration Centre” to be set up in India and for which CIDC and SIAC had entered into an MOU on 25th September 2004.

The workshop covered the following issues with eminent speakers delivering the talk:

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Consequent to the signing of the MOU between CIDC and SIAC on 25th September 2004 a co-operation Agreement was signed on 5th February 2005 to lay down the framework for setting up an International Arbitration Centre for construction works in India.

As you must be aware that CIDC has been working to find ways and means to resolve the problem of complex prevailing system and mechanism of settling disputes in India. A Committee was constituted to deliberate and recommend an agenda for action. The Committee recommended the following:

• To review the existing mechanisms

• To facilitate Training & Certification of Arbitrators

• To setup separate courts for Arbitration

• To collaborate with SIAC

Apart from facilitating effective and speedy resolution of disputes, the center would facilitate training and certification of Arbitrators. The center would function through a secretarial headed by a Registrar.

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CIDC Founders Day

CIDC was founded on 7th March, 1996. To mark its ninth anniversary, a small select gathering of highly distinguished Industry luminaries gathered in India Habitat Centre.

CIDC was honoured to felicitate Dr. Som Datt, Chairman, Som Datt Builders and Shri Jai Prakash Gaur, Chairman, Jai Prakash Industries, with lifetime contribution awards for their distinguished services to the Indian Construction Industry.

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Executive Development Programmes (EDPs)

• Advance Certificate Course in Managing Construction Sites on 27-29, October 2004 at Radisson Hotel, New Delhi.

• Advance Certificate Course in Maintenance Management of Old and New Buildings on 18-19, November 2004 at Radisson Hotel, New Delhi.

• Advance Certificate Course in Legal side of Personnel Management on 15-17, December 2004 at Radisson Hotel, New Delhi.

• Advance Certificate Course in Legal side of Contract Management on 10-11, February 2005 at Radisson Hotel, New Delhi.

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Training Programme for School Students

The School training programme is receiving a good respone.

The students have been doing extremely well in their studies and their talent is being recognized by some leading companies which have expressed interest in providing them on site training and employment. These companies include:

• M/s IRCON International Ltd

• M/s Unitech Ltd

• M/s Jai Prakash Industries Ltd

• M/s Afcons Infrastructure Ltd

• M/s Simplex Concrete Piles (I) Ltd

• M/s D.S. Construction Ltd

• M/s Builders’ Association of India

All the eligible students of both the Delhi batches have been accepted by these organizations for on site training with stipend and some other benefits. The onsite training has started w.e.f. 1st March 2005 and noting the interest of the organizations we feel that placement for the students would be easily accomplished.

The program, however, needs to be expanded a great deal of support from all segments of Government and Industry, to fully realize the potential of this program which aims at filling the huge gap in demand and supply of skilled supervisors and site support staff on construction sites.

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Training Programme for Indonesians

Govt. of Indonesia, through National Small Scale Industry Corporation has entrusted CIDC to develop course materials, depute trainers, Conduct Training, testing & Certification of Indonesian Construction Workers. The training is to be imparted in six trades and shall include facilitation in setting up a training center at Jakarta, Indonesia. All the six trainers have reached Jakarta, Indonesia, and have commenced their work of training w.e.f. first week of February, 2005.

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Workers Training Programme

The following Construction Workers Training / Certification Programmes were organized by CIDC:

• M/s GUJARAT MAHILA HOUSING TRUST
  AHMEDABAD 17-18 Nov 2004

• “ANANDI” DAHOD & PANCHAN MAHAL
  GUJARAT 19-20 Nov 2004

• M/s MCM WORLDWIDE P LTD
  FARIDABAD 23rd Dec 2004

• M/s SIMPLEX CONT. & PILES LTD
  NEW DELHI 23rd Dec 2004

• M/s IGNOU CENTRE
  NEW DELHI 4th Mar 2005

• M/s MEG CENTRE
  BANGALORE 5th Mar 2005

• M/s MCM WORLD WIDE P LTD
  FARIDABAD 16th Mar 2005

• M/s SUSTRUP, BAKI,
  SITAPUR 4th Mar 2005

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Construction Cost Indices

Construction Cost Indices (CCI) have been computed for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore & Hyderabad. The CCI represents variation in cost of construction. CCI are computed from the cost of various inputs that go into construction works and since the weightage of these inputs such as cost of cement, steel, sand, wood etc, wages & salaries and cost of equipment vary for various sectors of the economy where construction plays a major role, the indices are computed for the 11 sectors as given in Table 2 for Feb. 2005 w.r.t the base year. The averages are computed for the cities and are given in Table 1 along with the National Average.

On an average, the index rose by 0.30% per month during the September 2004 – February 2005 period.

Table 1: Average Construction Cost Indices
Base = 100.00, Jan 1998

Table 2: CCI for February 2005
Base = 100.00, Jan 1998

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PDCOR Limited Study on CCI

M/s PDCOR Limited has awarded work for creation and compilation of the Construction Cost Indices for Jalore District in Rajasthan.

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CIDC enters into an Mou with British Standard Institute (BSI)

CIDC has entered into an MoU with BSI to promote the acceptability of Indian construction materials in the European markets. The MoU will help Indian manufacturers to obtain CE mark, which is geven by BSI. The CE mark would help to improve the acceptability of Indian construction materials in Europre

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World Conrefence on IT in Design and Construction November 15th, 16th and 17th, 2006, New Delhi, India - ITCSED/INCITE 2006

Back in 1996, ITCSED'96 was organized at Strathclyde University, Glasgow to exchange cutting edge ideas on IT in Civil and Structural Engineering Design. In the intervening period, a lot has transpired and this is perhaps a time to reflect on all that has happened since. Similarly, INCITE series of conferences was started in the year 2000 at Hong Kong Poly U to take stock of developments in IT in Construction. By coming together in 2006, the purpose of this conference is to combine the developments in Design and Construction vis-avis the impact of IT on these two separate but quite inevitably tied and interlinked fields. The purpose is to bring together experts from research and practice in both the fields of design and construction. The hope is that this will cross fertilize ideas resulting in interesting and stimulating seeds for further research and development.

The conference will be jointly organized by the School of the Built and Natural Environment (GCU) and the Construction Industry Development Council of India (CIDC) in collaboration with Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Salford University, UK

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Conference Organization Conference Chair

• Prof. B Kumar, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

Conference Co-Chairs

• Prof. P Bradon, Salford University, UK

• Prof. Heng Li, Hong Kong PolyU

• Prof. Geoffery Shen, Hong Kong PolyU

• Mr. P R Swarup, CIDC, India

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CIDC Association with RUIDP

CIDC & RUIDP enter into an MOC; CIDC-ICRA Grading of Construction Companies made Criteria For Pre-qualification for RUIDP Projects.

Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project (RUIDP) is an ADB financed project of Government of Rajasthan. It is being implemented in 6 major cities i.e. Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bikaner, Ajmer and Udaipur of the State. An investment of Rs.1500 Crore is targeted for sectors such as Sewerage (laying of sewer lines, outfall sewers and construction of Treatment plants), Water Supply (laying of AC/PSCC/DI/MS pipelines, ESRs, CWRs and construction of water treatment plants), Roads (Construction of culverts & minor bridges), Railway Over-bridges and flyovers, Drainage (Construction of major drains), Heritage and Medical Sector (Construction of buildings, electrical works, Air conditioning works) etc.

CIDC and RUIDP have entered into a MOC and both the parties agreed to work jointly for the following:-

• To evolve and develop the policy framework for implementation, draw out a blue print for action encompassing activities with Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Programme.

• To promote networking & create synergy among various professional organizations, and to forge such alliances, and, understanding with them to enable accomplishing the overall objectives as stated above.

• Conceptualize & implement services, developed by the first party and their associates to promote adoption of good practices by various stakeholders in the Construction Industry, such as grading etc.

• Adopt programmes & strategies developed by the first party in the area of HRD in Construction Industry to improve the state of construction activities.

• And to take any such action, which may be required to be taken to further the mandated objectives of both the parties.

In this context RUIDP has introduced Grading of Construction / Consultancy Companies as pre-qualification criteria for its Projects. This would help RUIDP to make an objective assessment of the financial / technical / managerial capabilities of the entity.