• Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Light House Projects under the Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) in six states on January 1.

• The programme seeks to build over 1,000 houses each in six cities in 12 months.

Global Housing Technology Challenge-India 

• The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) launched the Global Housing Technology Challenge – India (GHTC-India) on January 14, 2019. It seeks to demonstrate and deliver ready to live-in houses in a shorter time, with lower cost and quality construction in a sustainable manner. 

It has three components:

1) Conduct of grand expo-cum-conference.

2) Identifying proven demonstrable technologies from across the world.

3) Promoting potential technologies through setting up incubation centers at selected IITs and organising accelerator workshops under the Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators-India (ASHA-India) Programme.

What are Light House Projects?

• Light House Projects (LHPs) are model housing projects with houses built with shortlisted alternate technology suitable to the geo-climatic and hazard conditions of the region. This will demonstrate and deliver ready to live houses with speed, economy and with better quality of construction in a sustainable manner.

• LHPs showcase the best of new-age alternative global technologies, materials and processes in the construction sector for the first time in the country at such a large scale. They comprise about 1,000 houses at each location along with allied infrastructure facilities.

• The LHPs are being constructed at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).

• The construction will be completed within 12 months from the date of handing over of sites to the construction agency after all statutory approvals. 

• Six technology providers have been selected through an online bidding process for construction of LHPs at six different locations in six states.

• These LHPs shall serve as laboratories for different aspects of transfer of technologies to field application, such as planning, design, production of components, construction practices, testing, etc for both faculty and students, builders, professionals and other stakeholders involved in such construction.

• The minimum size of houses constructed under LHP shall be in accordance with the prevailing guidelines of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).

• Convergence with other existing centrally sponsored schemes and missions such as Smart Cities, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Swachh Bharat (Urban) and National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) shall be ensured during the designing of LHPs at each site.

LHPs demonstrate a variety of technologies

1) Prefabricated Sandwich Panel System

• The project in Indore will not have brick and mortar walls, instead they will use the Prefabricated Sandwich Panel System.

• It is an established system for building construction in China, Australia, African and Gulf countries. In factory made Prefabricated Sandwich Panel System, the sandwich panels made out of cement or calcium silicate boards and cement mortar with expanded polystyrene (EPS) granules act as wall panels. These replace conventional brick and mortar wall construction practices and can be used as load-bearing and non-load bearing walling with either reinforced cement concrete (RCC) or steel frame. In this project, a steel structure frame is used. This system is typically ideal for single storey buildings, especially for residential and commercial buildings without frame structure.

2) Monolithic Concrete System using tunnel form

• The light houses in Rajkot will be built using french technology and have Monolithic Concrete Construction technology using tunnels and the house will be more capable of withstanding disasters.

• Monolithic Concrete Construction System intends to replace the conventional steel or plywood shuttering formwork system with customised engineered formwork, which is manufactured in the factory set up under controlled conditions. The customised engineered tunnel form system consists of two half shells made of steel which are placed together to form a room or cell. Several such cells make an apartment. With tunnel forms, walls and slab are cast in a single day.

3) Precast Concrete Construction System

• In Chennai, they will use the Precast Concrete System, which will construct the house faster and cheaper. 

• Precast Concrete Construction is a system where the individual components such as walls, slabs, stairs, column, beam, etc of various thickness, shape and sizes of building, are manufactured in plant or casting yard in controlled factory conditions. The final components are then transported to site, erected and installed by crane and assembled together through in-situ jointing and/or grouting etc. The technology provides solutions for low rise to high rise buildings, especially for residential and commercial buildings.

4) Precast Concrete Construction System – 3D Volumetric

• In Ranchi, houses will be built using 3D construction system. Each room will be made separately and then the entire structure will be added in the same way as Lego Blocks toys. 

• This 3D Volumetric Concrete Construction is the modern method of building by which solid precast concrete structural modules like room, toilet, kitchen, bathroom, stairs, etc and any combination of these are cast monolithically in a plant or casting yard in a controlled condition. These modules are transported, erected and installed using cranes and push-pull jacks and are integrated together in the form of a complete building unit. Subject to the hoisting capacity, buildings of any height can be constructed using the technology.

5) Light Gauge Steel Structural System 

• In Agartala, houses will be built using structural steel frame with light gauge steel infill panels.

• An already established system for building construction in Japan, Australia and North America, Light Gauge Steel Framed Structural System uses factory made galvanised light gauge steel components. The components/sections are produced by cold forming method and assembled as panels at site forming the structural steel framework of a building of varying sizes of wall and floor.

• This light gauge steel structure independently is typically suitable for one to four-storey high buildings, especially for residential and commercial buildings.

6) PVC Stay In Place Formwork System

• In Lucknow, PVC Stay in Place Formwork System will be used. 

• Already in use in Canada and Australia, PVC Stay In Place Formwork System acts as pre-finished walls requiring no plaster and can be constructed with speed. This system is suitable for residential and commercial buildings of any height from low rise to high rise.

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