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Government doubles infrastructure spending in new five year plan - continued

To which Anna said “We also expect significant growth from infrastructure. The current five year plan of the government, which covers the period up until 2017, includes doubling the investments in this sector compared to the recent one. Big investments are planned to expand the country’s energy- and water supply as well as roads and the train network. Furthermore, several ports and airports are in planning or already being built.”

However, in some respects, India is still behind when it comes to the market for construction machinery and equipment. On this, Mr Mahershwari said that as long as labour costs are comparably low, at least smaller firms will shy away from the investments that come with that sort of equipment. India‘s highly fragmented building sector still hosts a significant number of these. Especially if we are talking about smaller building projects, the smaller builders often have an advantage, since they offer cheaper labour compared to the big competitors.

“But even as we speak, the circumstances are changing. There are two main factors that make a growing construction equipment market very likely. The number of larger projects is growing strongly. With those, heavy machinery is without alternative if companies want to build beyond a certain size. Especially in the metropolises many new buildings have reached a size which is impossible to build without the help of professional equipment.

The second factor is the time. The more the professional the sector becomes, the shorter the schedules become. Manual labour may still be cheaper, but it will consume more time. And that is time that especially the large builders are not willing to afford.”

“It is a major task for the industry to adapt to the expected growth. India‘s worldwide market share in the industry already tripled to six per cent from 2004 to 2010 and will continue to grow. Companies, therefore, have to adapt on multiple fronts. One of them is the collaboration with the suppliers, another is improving the competitiveness. This means, for example, to create new products which suit the India customers’ demands and to continuously upgrade the skills of the sales force.

Need to address health and safety issues

One construction company forbids child labour, which indicates how prevalent it is.
. Photo: Victor Grigas

Such investments in infrastructure can only contribute to improving the lives of many in the country. However, although the Government is committing billions of rupees to infrastructure development there is little sign of them implementing even the most basic of health and safety practices.

The newspapers of India frequently report on the numerous deaths occurring on construction sites and yet, as the Times of India recently reported that the Government is in the dark as to how many deaths, never mind accidents, there actually are.

The Times of India said ‘Labour officials state that, by their information, 40 such labourers died in the past six months in Maharashtra. The real figure, though, could be much higher, they admit. “The law requires that we be informed of deaths at construction sites within 72 hours. But we receive no official information,” says a senior labour official.’

Entire communities can be displaced with little or no compensations in implementing the grandiose schemes and, despite constant denials, child labour is still a common occurrence on sites throughout India.

Equipment is regularly misused and often poorly maintained, even basic tools such as ladders are often used with broken rungs. Sandals are the standard foot wear for many, who, somewhat congruously could be wearing a hard hat. Concrete burns and other similar injuries are a common occurrence with little reporting, no medical treatment and no compensation.

In the western world, it is doubtful if any construction worker would accept such conditions. They are protected somewhat by law and social benefit schemes. In India, there is no such protection.

Making steps

With such dangerous construction activities one could question the social responsibility of manufacturers providing equipment. However, most of these companies do have active training policies and do promote on site safety and safety awareness.  Many of the exhibitors at bc India will be making customers aware of the training programmes that are available.

It is encouraging to see that on some of the major projects, especially those in joint venture with contractors from outside of India, stricter safety regulations are being implemented but the government needs to do more - much more.

[cwmags]

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