In news : Recently, the Prime Minister released a certification course on innovative construction technologies named NAVARITIH (New, Affordable, Validated, Research Innovation Technologies for Indian Housing)
About NAVARITIH
It is a certificate course on Innovative construction Technologies
The Course on Innovative Construction Technologies has been launched as one of the activities under “Construction Technology Year (2019-20)” which was announced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister during Construction Technology India 2019 : Expo-cum-conference under Global Housing Technology Challenge – India on March 2, 2019 at New Delhi.
It is being offered jointly by the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi and Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, New Delhi.
The objectives of this course are to:
- Familiarise the professionals with the latest materials and technologies being used worldwide for housing.
- Provide an awareness of the state of art of materials and technologies in terms of properties, specifications, performance, design and construction methodologies so that professionals can successfully employ these in their day to day practice.
- Provide exposure to executed projects where such materials and technologies have been implemented.
Need for the Course on Innovative Construction Technologies
- The housing problem in India is huge, with urban housing shortage pegged at 11.2 million dwelling units.
- In order to reduce the housing shortage, it is necessary that a speedy and affordable housing construction mechanism be devised.
- For a long time, Indians have been building either by the brick masonry or random rubble masonry method or by using an RCC framed structure with infill walls.
- This system of housing construction is time consuming process, with wastages and inherent difficulties of quality control besides air and noise pollution.
- Further, there is a shortage of conventional building materials also such as sand, bricks and so on. Therefore, there is an urgent need for us to look at alternate and innovative building materials and construction systems.
Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India)
The awareness of all these alternate & innovative materials(mentioned above), technologies and methods of construction is limited and therefore, their spread has also somehow been restricted The recent initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) of the Government of India called Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) has brought this issue into a sharp focus in the year 2019.
- Through GHTC-India, a large number of new materials and technologies being used in over 30 countries across the world have been identified and will be used for constructing light house projects in six different states in India.
- Most of these are green, affordable, fast and easy to construct.
- These six major ‘light house projects’ will be live laboratories for evaluation, assessment, certification, standardization, skill development leading to adapting and mainstreaming these technologies in India.
Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC)
- In order to bridge the gap between research and development and large scale application of new building material technologies, the erstwhile Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, had established the Building Materials And Technology Promotion Council in July 1990.
- The Council strives to package proven innovative technologies for the benefit of entrepreneurs interested in setting up manufacturing units in tiny, small, medium and large scale sectors.
- The Council is structured to undertake the task of the extension and application of technologies and materials developed by research institutions on the ground with the backing of financial institutions and enabling regulatory environment.
