Application of Off-Site Construction For Affordable Housing in India

The University of Salford Manchester
School of Built Environment
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements towards the degree of Masters of Science in
Construction Management
APPLICATION OF OFF-SITE CONSTRUCTION

TECHNOLOGY FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN
URBAN INDIA
TEJAS SANJAY JADHAV

@00340855
September 2013
Abstract
In this epoch of India’s economic growth, where there is remarkable

urbanisation of the city areas, the government is facing a severe challenge of
confronting the issue of tremendous housing demand. Most of the population
causing urbanisation belongs to the category of economically weaker section
and the lower income group of India, which calls for the shortfall of ‘Affordable
Housing’. The soaring demand of affordable housing has stressed the
construction sector’s need to adopt quick and innovative construction
technologies. Off-Site construction has emerged as a nostrum to deal with
time and money related issues in construction. Various forms of this
technology have been adopted in India, however, very few are in the field of
housing. This research explores the gaps in affordable housing and identifies
the benefits and challenges of off-site construction that suggests a way out for
opting off-site construction to build affordable houses in India. The research
reviewed a wide scale of relevant literature and conducted 5 semi-structured
interviews with highly experienced professionals in the Indian construction
sector for gathering data. Findings of this study highlighted the private sectors’
role in success of bridging the gap of demand and supply of affordable
housing and the role of off-site construction in significantly reducing the time
and cost of construction. The study concluded with highlighting the feasibility
of adopting off-site construction for building affordable houses in urban India
and proffered this idea through awareness of this technology and revising the
building guidelines.
Keywords: Affordable housing, off-site construction, gaps in affordable

housing, benefits and challenges of off-site construction, awareness.
ii
Declaration
Being a student of Masters of Science in Construction Management at the

University of Salford Manchester, I certify that all the material submitted
through this dissertation is completely my own work and all the sources that
have contributed to this research have been duly acknowledged by means of
proper references.
Signed
TEJAS SANJAY JADHAV
Date: 20th September 2013
iii
Acknowledgement
Firstly, I am truly grateful to the Almighty for building this confidence in me to

complete my Masters degree by successfully completing this Dissertation. I
would like to express my deepest gratitude towards my supervisor Dr.
Mohammed Arif for the knowledge and support he gave me throughout the
phase of this dissertation. A heartfelt thanks to him for making available time
for me, regardless of the busy schedule when he was out of the UK.
I am thankful to my parents and my whole family who backed me during the

whole phase of masters and most importantly during dissertation. Special
thank to my uncle Mr. Vijay Jadhav for being a deep and rich source of
inspiration and information. A vote of thanks to all the interviewees for sharing
valuable knowledge and data, which helped me construct this thesis.
Sincere thanks to my friend Nimisha Bhinge and all other colleagues that
helped me and encouraged me for this dissertation. And lastly I would like to
thank everyone who supported me directly or indirectly, to fruitfully complete
this Research.
iv
Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................ ii
Declaration ...................................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgement........................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents............................................................................................. v
List of Figures ................................................................................................. vi
List of Tables .................................................................................................. vi
List of Graphs ................................................................................................. vi
List of Abbreviations:...................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1
1.1 Background ............................................................................................ 1
1.2 Purpose of Research .............................................................................. 2
1.3 Dissertation Aim ..................................................................................... 3
1.4 Objectives............................................................................................... 3
1.5 Dissertation Roadmap ............................................................................ 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 6
2.1 State of Housing in India ........................................................................ 6
2.2 Affordable Housing ................................................................................. 8
2.3 Trend of Affordable Housing and its Issues in India ............................. 10
2.4 Off-Site Construction for Affordable Housing........................................ 11
2.5 Off-Site Construction ............................................................................ 13
2.5.1 Defining Off-Site Construction ....................................................... 13
2.5.2 Benefits of Off-Site Construction .................................................... 18
2.5.3 Challenges of Off-Site Construction ............................................... 19
2.5.4 Level of Uptake of OSC In India .................................................... 22
2.5.5 Global Trend of Off-Site Construction Adoption ............................. 23
2.6 Literature Findings and Need for Empirical Data Collection ................. 24
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................ 26
3.1 Introduction........................................................................................... 26
3.2 Research Approach .............................................................................. 26
3.3 Research Method ................................................................................. 27
3.4 Data Collection ..................................................................................... 28
3.4.1 Semi-Structured Interviews ............................................................ 28
3.5 Data Analysis ....................................................................................... 29
3.6 Limitations and Potential Problems ...................................................... 31
3.6.1 Credibility of Findings..................................................................... 31
3.6.2 Ethical Considerations ................................................................... 32
3.7 Briefing the Research Strategy............................................................. 32
CHAPTER 4: DATA COLLECTION – FINDINGS .......................................... 34
4.1 Empirical Data ...................................................................................... 34
4.1.1 India – Growing Demand for Housing ............................................ 34
4.1.2 Gaps in Affordable Housing ........................................................... 36
4.1.3 Benefits from OSC ......................................................................... 38
4.1.4 Potential Barriers for OSC ............................................................. 40
v
4.1.5 Suitability of OSC for Affordable Housing ...................................... 43
4.1.6 Future Strategy – Way Ahead........................................................ 45
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION .......................................................................... 48
5.1 Synthesis of Data ................................................................................. 48
5.2 Strategy for Implementation ................................................................. 52
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 55
6.1 Summarising Crucial Findings .............................................................. 55
6.2 Recommendations ............................................................................... 56
6.3 Limitations and Scope for Further Research ........................................ 57
References: ................................................................................................... 58
Appendices: ................................................................................................... 66
Appendix 1: Interview-1 .............................................................................. 66
List of Figures
Figure 1: Dissertation Roadmap ...................................................................... 5
Figure 2: Timesaving with OSC ..................................................................... 14
Figure 3: Wall panel ready for installation with Interior and Exterior finishes . 15
Figure 4: Volumetric Blocks ........................................................................... 16
Figure 5: Bridge Frame .................................................................................. 16
Figure 6: Modular Building at New York City, United States .......................... 17
Figure 7: Process of data analysis for a qualitative research ......................... 30
List of Tables
Table 1: Definition of Affordable Housing (KPMG) ........................................... 9
Table 2: Definition of Affordable Housing (MHUPA) ........................................ 9
List of Graphs
Graph 1: Percentage increase in Urbanisation ................................................ 7
vi
List of Abbreviations:
CIDB – Construction Industry Development Board

E.g. – For example
EMI – Equated Monthly Instalments
EWS – Economically Weaker Section
FICCI – Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
FSI – Floor Surface Index
Ft - Feet
i.e. – That is
INR – Indian National Rupee
JNNURM – Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
LIG – Low Income Group
Max. – Maximum
MHUPA – The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
MIG – Medium Income Group
Min. – Minimum
MNCC – Multi-national Construction Company
NGO – Non-governmental Organisation
OSC – Off-site Construction
OSM – Off-site Manufacturing
PPP – Public Private Partnership
RICS – Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
UK – United Kingdom
UN – United Nations
USA – United States of America
vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The rapid urbanisation during the period of India’s post independence,

especially after the 1980s, has led to bulk of rural population adding to the
cities. The FICCI report on urban infrastructure in India (2011) indicates that
almost 900 million people will be added in the urban areas of India by 2050.
Due to the country's advancement in industrialisation, the migration of
population from rural areas to the cities is more likely to follow. This has
resulted in a very big challenge to the government of India, in order to meet
the shortage of urban housing. This housing shortage is mostly evident for the
lower income group and the economically weaker section of Indian population
(RICS, 2010). To meet this vast scale of urban housing requirement, there is
a need to find out practical solutions at the earliest.
Ogden (n.d.) noticed that use of traditional methods of construction has

proved unsuccessful for India, in meeting the enormous housing shortage
(Cited in Goulding and Arif, 2013, p.5). In order to meet the growing demand
of housing, a number of initiatives have come up from the government in the
form of mass housing schemes. These schemes encourage the use of
innovative construction technologies in order to meet the growing housing
demand in India. Many developed nations of the world make use of advanced
technologies for bulk manufacturing of speedy and better quality housing (Arif
et al, 2012). The RICS research report on Making Affordable Housing work in
India (2010) suggests the need to invest in innovative construction
technologies like modular housing i.e. Off-site construction (OSC) for
promoting the development of mass housing at construction costs that are
subsidised. These concepts can take care of meeting the needs of affordable
housing.
OSC is not new to India and it is practised under various other names,
however, its uptake is relatively lower. Ogden (n.d.) pointed out that even
though the developed world has taken up this technology to quite a greater
1
extent; the developing nations are still starving for wide acceptance of this
technology, due to lack of awareness (Cited in Goulding and Arif, 2013, p.5).
This research discusses the issues with affordable housing and the trend of
OSC in India and its role in meeting the housing shortage in Urban India.
1.2 Purpose of Research
The role of OSC in the field of architecture has always been praised for its
ability to improve the productivity and efficiency without sacrificing the quality.
Most of the developing nations including India have begun to rely on OSC
because of its huge potential of producing quick and affordable housing.
Considering the overall economy of India, there is an acute necessity to
develop affordable housing techniques. OSC offers low cost and sustainable
building solutions, however, the construction industry of developing nations
who prefer traditional building practises believe that there is always a risk in
trying out innovative methods for construction (Smith and Narayanamurthy,
2008).
Although the term “Off-Site Construction” has become identical with modern
and heavy-duty construction methods, its adoption in Indian sector is still very
low. “Prefabrication technology has not transferred as easily when compared
with other technologies because it is a production technology or knowledge
based and not a consumption technology or product based” (Smith and
Narayanamurthy, 2008, p.52). This statement emphasises the lack of
awareness in the Indian construction sector about this technology, which has
led to its inappropriate transfer from developed nations. Moreover, materials
for production and cost of machinery have been the most difficult technology
transfer hurdles for most efforts made by government and other private
construction companies in India. A study carried out by Arif et al (2012)
mentioned that there is a need to address time, cost and quality with use of
innovative technologies for construction. Considering the state of housing in
India, the issues with construction sector and use of innovative construction
technologies, there is a need to carry out a study to know the suitability of
2
these technologies to tackle the affordable housing problem in India.
Therefore, this research has been carried out to identify the feasibility OSC to
meet the government’s objective to produce quick, cheap and quality housing
for the urban population.
The research mainly focuses on issues related to housing in the urban areas
of India, current urban housing demand, trend of OSC in India, its drivers and
barriers and its suitability for affordable housing. The research proposes a
strategy for making affordable housing work in India with the help of OSC
technology. Moreover, this research is useful for the government and the
construction sector in order to apply innovative technologies for the purpose
of housing in India.
1.3 Dissertation Aim
Considering the poor housing situation in urban areas of India and the failure
of traditional building practises in meeting the same, this dissertation realises
the need to suggest an innovative construction technology to meet the
housing demand of the urban poor. To meet this issue, this dissertation aims
“to check the feasibility of Off-site construction technology for
affordable housing in urban India and propose a strategy for its
implementation.”
1.4 Objectives
The author has set out five main objectives, which collectively contribute to
meet the aim of this dissertation.
1. To understand and overview the situation of urban housing in India.

2. To identify the potential gaps in affordable housing in urban India.
3. To explore the potential benefits and barriers against the use of off-site
construction technology.
3
4. To identify the suitability of off-site construction for affordable housing
in urban India.
5. To develop a strategy for use of off-site construction for affordable
housing in urban India.
1.5 Dissertation Roadmap
A strategic roadmap is developed and adopted to successfully carry out this

research. Depending on an intensive study on the housing situation in India, a
topic for this dissertation has been selected. It starts with introducing the
reader about the research by giving a background of the study area and
justifies the purpose of study. This makes it possible to draw the aim and
objectives for the research. The dissertation then studies and critically reviews
a vast literature on the research area, which calls for the collection of
empirical data. The literature review is followed by research methodology,
which discusses the approach for this research and the reason for selecting
interviews as the method of data collection. A strategic description of the
interviewee opinions and its synthesis, leads to crucial findings for the
research. These findings help to draw conclusion for this dissertation, which
then recommends a strategy for implementing the whole idea. Later, it
highlights the limitations and scope for further research.
4
Figure 1: Dissertation Roadmap
The flow chart shown in Figure 1 represents a complete roadmap for this
dissertation. This chapter provides a brief idea of the housing situation in
urban India, by introducing and justifying the reader to the topic of interest. It
then discusses the aim and objectives set out for the research. Followed by
this, there is a representation of complete roadmap for this research. The next
chapter studies a vast literature on the study area, which will be critically
reviewed to contribute to the research.
5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review focuses on areas related to housing situation in India

and the need for affordable housing, issues related to affordable housing,
several concepts of off-site construction. It also focuses on benefits, barriers
and the level of uptake of OSC and its suitability for affordable housing. This
chapter makes a significant contribution to this research by exploring the
contents of literature. This literature review concentrates on objectives 1, 2, 3
& 4. It ends with a summary where the literature is reviewed and emphasises
the need to collect empirical data.
2.1 State of Housing in India
Today, India is recognised as the second largest populated country in the

whole world, with its population growing at a such a high rate that it will
surpass the most populated country in the world i.e. China, by 2028, as
confirmed by the United Nations press release (UN, 2013). Being a
developing nation, India is experiencing growth of the urban population when
compared to the rural population, as people are migrating from rural areas to
the cities. A report submitted by the RICS (2010) on ‘Making Affordable
Housing Work in India’, confirmed that more than a quarter of Indian
population resides in urban areas of India, which is almost double of what it
was at the time of independence. At this enormous rate of growth of
population, challenges are obvious, one out of them being housing. Poverty is
evident in India and becomes the most probable reason for people migrating
from countryside to the city areas for handful earnings, resulting in higher
rates of urbanisation, thus, creating shortage of housing. Graph 1 shows the
percentage increase in urbanisation during India’s post independence
(Census of India, 2011).
6
35%
31.20%
30%
27.80%
25% 25.70%
23.30%
20%
18% 18.20%
15%
Graph 1: Percentage increase in Urbanisation
According to the statistics provided by the Planning commission, there was a

huge housing demand of about 26 million houses, out of which, the houses
meant for the economically weaker section (EWS) and lower income group
(LIG) totalled to approximately 99% of the demand (Planning Commission,
2007). The amount of affordable housing need is astonishing, after looking at
the shocking number of people who fall short of housing. SHELTER (2013), in
its issue on ‘Affordable Housing’ identified India’s acute need to tackle the
urban housing shortage, with the aid of providing affordable houses that avoid
getting into a greater difficulty. A broad study carried out by McKinsey Global
Institute regarding the urbanisation of India finds out that the government of
India have proved to be unsuccessful in developing a working model for
affordable housing in-spite of its increasing demand in India (McKinsey Global
Institute, 2010). The statistics of this report reflect that there was a surprisingly
low rate of production of affordable houses in Mumbai i.e. 6700 units per year,
over a period of last 30 years (McKinsey Global Institute, 2010). At this low
production rate, the affordable housing problem will be more intensified rather
getting solved. The Indian Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
in its report on ‘Urban Housing Shortage’ in India, stressed that Government
of India has formulated a number of initiatives, over a period of last 10 years
such as the Affordable Housing in Partnership, National Housing Policy 2007,
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Rajiv Awas Yojana, etc.,
to counter this problem and assure millions of Indians of their own homes
7
(MHUPA, 2012a). In-spite of all these initiatives from the government, the
housing shortage is evident.
2.2 Affordable Housing
Affordability is a relative and generic concept. It has different meanings that

vary according to different people with different income levels. Affordable
housing basically refers to a housing that fulfils any form of affordability
criterion (MHUPA, 2012b). For a diverse country like India, both in terms of
population and income levels, it is very difficult to define affordability, as one
size fits all approach would not do justice in defining it. In urban housing
context, affordability would mean providing an acceptable dwelling on a very
persistent basis that ensures security of occupancy within the incomes of
common urban family (RICS, 2010). The US Department of Housing and
Urban Development defined affordable housing as a dwelling for which a
family pays nothing more than 30% of its annual income, in order to obtain
and maintain it (HUD, 2013). According to the Indian Ministry of Housing and
Poverty Alleviation, a dwelling unit of a carpet area of 300 to 600 ft 2, whose (i)
Cost does not exceed four times the annual income of the family (ii) Equated
monthly instalments (EMI) do not exceed 30% of monthly income of the family
(High Level Task Force, 2008).
As emphasised by the Indian Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty

Alleviation’s ‘Affordable Housing in Partnership’ scheme guidelines (2009),
the houses that fall in the categories – 300 ft2 for EWS, 500 ft2 for LIG and 600
ft2 to 1200 ft2 for MIG, are called as affordable houses. Provided these are
available at prices that allow the buyer to repay the home loan in the form of
EMIs that do not exceed his/her monthly income by 30% - 40%. An EWS
housing would have 25 m2 as its carpet area, whereas the LIG category
housing and an MIG category housing, would be limited to a maximum of 48
m2 and 80 m2 respectively as their carpet areas.
Various other definitions of affordable housing are –
‘Bridging the Urban Housing Shortage in India’ a report by KPMG (2012)

8
defined affordable housing in terms of income level of the buyer, the dwelling
unit size and affordability of different income groups as shown in Table 1
given by (KPMG, 2012).
Size of Dwelling
Income Level Affordability
Unit
<INR 1.5 Lakhs EMI to monthly

EWS Up to 300 ft2
per Annum income: 30% to
40%
INR 1.5 - 3 Lakhs
300 – 600 ft2
LIG per Annum House Price to
annual income
INR 3 - 10 Lakhs ratio: Less than
MIG 600 – 1200 ft2
per Annum 5:1
Table 1: Definition of Affordable Housing (KPMG)
The Indian Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation defined

affordable housing in terms of Size of the dwelling and the EMI or rent the
buyer will need to pay, all in context of various income groups (MHUPA, 2011)
as shown in Table 2 below.
Size EMI or Rent
 300 ft2 min super

built-up area
EWS
 269 ft2 min carpet
area
 500 ft2 min super

built-up area Does not exceed 30-
LIG
 517 ft2 max 40% of buyer’s monthly
carpet area income (Gross)
 600 – 1,200 ft2 of

super built-up
MIG area
 861 ft2 max
carpet area
Table 2: Definition of Affordable Housing (MHUPA)
9
2.3 Trend of Affordable Housing and its Issues in India
It has been observed in India that the private developers, for the sole reason,
target housing segments of luxury, high end and upper-mid housing, as it
draws a premium for low-income dwellings. Hence, leading to developers’
market competitiveness with constant supply of houses to these segments
(Jones Lang LaSalle, 2012). However, for the category of poor and EWS, the
government primarily provides housing, as a part of welfare. This has lead to
insufficiency when compared with the current shortage. The housing markets
in India are producing what is not demanded and not producing what is
demanded, leading to a huge gap in demand and supply (RICS, 2010). There
are various reasons like availability of land, inflation in land rates, etc. causing
an enormous gap in supply and demand of affordable housing. Thus,
negligence of meeting the housing demand of the category of LIGs, by the
construction market has resulted in a big shortage of supply of affordable
dwellings (Jones Lang LaSalle, 2012).
Only by ‘increasing’ the supply of affordable housing, a poor person’s housing

need can be met. According to the KPMG’s research report on ‘Urban
Housing Shortage in India’ (2012), there has been 25% reduction in the
dwelling shortage in past five years. This was evident after the launch of
various affordable housing projects by the private developers, which has been
a significant contribution by the private market in reducing the supply-demand
gap of affordable housing (KPMG, 2012). Even though, there is a
considerable amount of shortage in housing, it can be clearly seen that this
issue in India can be reduced to a considerable amount with the effective
participation of private developers.
Yet, the development in affordable housing remains to be a defiant plan for

the private developers. The report ‘Bridging the Urban Housing Shortage in
India’ (2012) identified that there are various issues like unavailability of urban
land, delays in approval from local authorities, increasing costs of
construction, lack of skilled labour. Moreover, financing the LIG and the
developers is a matter of concern that is overlooked by the government. The
unrevised laws, building guidelines and very high taxation system are some
10
critical constraints that restrain the active participation of private builders in
affordable housing projects. Big amount of active participation from the private
sector is possible, if the government encourages them by formulating various
policies that can be in the form of project financing, delivery and technological
solutions (KPMG, 2012). This calls for adopting some alternative that will
assist in meeting the housing demand.
2.4 Off-Site Construction for Affordable Housing
As for the United Kingdom, Sir John Egan in his report said that with the ever-
growing need of affordable housing, the construction market needs to take
advantage of the highly effective technique of off-site/Industrialised
construction for housing (Egan, 1998). Similar is the case with India, where it
requires millions of affordable houses to be constructed in a short span of
time to overcome the housing shortage for poor (RICS, 2010). Off-
site/Industrialised construction is one such construction technique that offers
various benefits such as reduced cost, improved quality, faster construction
and less number of labour (Blismas et al, 2005). Many construction
professionals oppose the fact that OSC offers reduced cost of construction,
but Hans (2012) argues that one can make savings in short term as well as in
long-term of the structure by adopting pre-fabricated buildings over
traditionally built ones. Pre-fabricated homes usually perform better, as strict
norms are observed in factories, where manufacturing of these houses is
carried out. This type of construction technique uses the bleeding edge
technology, minimising the number of faults or defects of manufacturing, as
strong quality checks are given that can be put in place.
According to the report submitted by KPMG (2012), it can be seen that

affordable houses can be constructed at relatively faster rate and cost
effectively, if the developers leverage on the low-cost and innovative
technologies like OSC. Even though OSC materials are expensive by almost
15-20% (Hans, 2012), the developers can cover-up these expenses from low
11
labour costs and improved efficiency, which acts as dual benefits. As reported
by a leading newspaper issue in ‘The Economic Times’, there has been
significant savings of man-hours of developers who opted pre-cast concrete
technology, by almost 64% of that required for the traditional building
practices (The Economic Times, 2012).
The RICS (2010) highlights significance of innovative construction

technologies that have contributed in promoting developments of mass
housing in a very environment sensitive way and at subsidised prices, as in
the case of Minha Casa Project in Brazil. As similarly said by Joshi in an issue
published by SHELTER (2013) that ‘Affordable Housing in Partnership’ a
scheme launched by the Government of India, emphasises the acceptance of
more innovative technologies for the housing construction in India. Adopting
newer technologies will make sure that the urban poor can buy these houses
at affordable rates. OSC techniques have proved to be successful in
addressing all aspects of sustainability, be it economic, environmental or
social. Blismas, Pasquire and Gibb (2006) found out that OSC aids in
manufacturing cost-efficient buildings, which in-turn affects the affordability of
the buyer (Burgan and Sansom, 2006). Mass standardisation/customisation
lead to increased profits to the manufacturer (Nahmens and Mullens, 2009),
further accomplishing the economic sustainability criteria for buyer and the
manufacturer. The environmental aspect of sustainability is achieved with
reduction in on-site waste, as identified by Luther (2009). Moreover, process-
waste in complete supply chain is reduced to a considerable extent (Burgan
and Sansom, 2006). Use of Structurally Insulated Panels results in better
efficiency of energy (Taur and Devi T, 2009). Better air tightness and
structural integrity is achieved with the adoption of OSC (Pan, 2010). Luther
(2009) emphasised that when these on-site building components are
produced off-site, wider social benefits like safe and good conditions for
working, improved security for job, etc. can be achieved. Thus, resulting in
achieving social sustainability. Hence, it can be seen that OSC technology is
quite suitable for building affordable houses.
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2.5 Off-Site Construction
The knowledge of improving the construction industry’s performance by

acquiring newer skills from the manufacturing industry is not a new fact, which
urges the contrast between both sectors (Gann, 199 Egan, 199
Wars awski, 1999 Womack et al., 1990 Leabue and in als, 2003 Ho o k
and Stehn, 2008). Off-Site construction technology is not new to the world
and is being practised from ages in both developed and developing nations of
the world. Most importantly, in-spite of different challenges associated with the
uptake of this technology in most nations remain more or less similar,
however, the ‘level’ of uptake of this technology vary from nation to nation
(Goulding and Arif, 2013). Let us find out the definition of OSC –
2.5.1 Defining Off-Site Construction
As stated by Gibb and Pendlebury (2005), OSC is considered as a technique

of construction where different components of a building are manufactured at
places other than actual construction sites i.e. factories. Gibb (1999)
emphasises that these manufactured components of a building are then
transported to the site and then assembled to erect the structure. Ngowi,
Pienaar and Mbachu (2005) identified that OSC is adopted for multi-storey
buildings, dwellings as well as for different civil engineering projects. Pan,
Gibb and Dainty (2007) & Arif and Egbu (2010), cleared that this method is
different as compared to the vernacular construction methods, where most of
the components of building are built on-site. This technique of construction
has ample advantages over traditional methods of construction, like reduced
duration of project as seen in Figure 2 below, presented by (Modular Building
Institute, 2011), reduced on-site wastage, reduced cost, increased
productivity, on-site safety, quality control, reduced environmental degradation
that also contributes for integrated delivery of the project (Gibb, 1999; Lusby-
Taylor et al, 2004; Lu, 2009).
13
Figure 2: Timesaving with OSC
Although, Tam et al (2007) highlighted the unsatisfactory outputs of this

technology to the construction industry, Hampson & Brandon (2004) believe
that many researchers have faith in this technology and consider it as the
future of construction industry. Off-Site Manufacturing (OSM), Pre-assembly,
Off-Site Production (OSP), Modern methods of Construction (MMC),
Industrialised Building System (IBS), Off-Site Fabrication (OSF), Pre-
Engineered Buildings are few other names by which OSC is recognised
(Gibb, 1999; Gibb and Pendlebury, 2005; Goodier and Gibb, 2007; Goulding
and Arif, 2013;Azman et al, 2010).
There are four main categories of OSC, as listed down by Gibb (1999) and an
additional fifth category, identified by Langdon and Everest (2004) –
1. Panelised System: Basically consists of producing building panels in

factory environment, which are later transported to the site and
assembled to form a structural frame. Langdon and Everest (2004)
identified two types of panelised systems: Open and Closed panels.
The prior is simple and less complex form, like light steel or simple
timber frames, whereas the later are more of the complex form that are
factory-finished units complete with lining, insulation, windows, doors,
and services. As they are manufactured under factory-controlled
conditions, the builder has an opportunity to reduce the overhead costs
through transferring the huge amount of on-site activities to factory,
resulting in faster on- site completion time. The NHBC in (2006)
14
confirmed that there are various other types of panels such as
Concrete Panels, which are basically the structural wall panels,
Composite Panels that are made by combining various other materials
to provide structural support, In-fill Panels that are the non-load bearing
panels inserted in a structural frame. Langdon and Everest (2004)
emphasise that the main market in the UK for panelised systems is
residential construction because of numerous benefits it offers such as
speed of construction, reduced exposure of the works to adverse
weather conditions. Figure 3 (Pulte Home Sciences, 2013) shows a
closed panel that is ready for installation.
Figure 3: Wall panel ready for installation with Interior and Exterior
finishes
2. Volumetric System: Consists off-site manufacturing of complete

building units in factory conditions that provide utilisable space (NHBC,
2006). These do not form complete building, but just a part of the whole
structure, as shown in Figure 4 (Yorkon, n.d). These units are nearly
complete to be transported and installed to their respective positions in
the building and have smaller amounts of on-site work to be completed.
They are usually made up of various materials such timber frames,
light gauge steel frame, concrete and composites. Volumetric systems
are usually suited for manufacturing in highly serviced areas, as
15
noticed by Langdon and Everest (2004). Pods for bathrooms, lift shafts,
toilets, rooms, etc. are few examples of volumetric system of OSC.
Figure 4: Volumetric Blocks
3. Non-Volumetric System: Consists manufacturing of pre-assembly units,

which do not enclose usable space. Their production is carried out off-
site. These are the larger factory-built components of a structure, which
can then be incorporated in traditionally built structures (NHBC, 2006).
Precast concrete bridge sections as shown in Figure 5 (Jackson,
2013), building services ductwork, structural steel work trusses, pre-
fabricated foundations, floor cassettes, roof cassettes, pre-fabricated
chimney stacks are few examples of non-volumetric system.
Figure 5: Bridge Frame
16
4. Modular Building System: Consists construction of complete buildings
on an area for production close to actual construction site. After
manufacturing, the complete building is transported to the actual site
for installation, where only service connections and foundation work is
done (Shahzad, 2011). Because they are permanently installed at their
designated locations, these building solutions differ from mobile
homes. These systems have depicted great potential for reconstruction
of disaster-hit areas. They have temporary as well as permanent use
and can also be used where there is shortage of labour in remote
areas (Langdon and Everest, 2004). Figure 6 (Urban Space
Management, Inc., 2012) shows a model of modular building.
Figure 6: Modular Building at New York City, United States
5. Hybrid System: This type of construction is also known as semi-

volumetric construction and is the combination of volumetric and
panelised system (NHBC, 2006). It can be used for highly serviced
areas like kitchen, where these areas can be constructed as volumetric
system and rest of the dwelling as panel construction, thus providing
flexibility of construction. Hence, use of this technique speeds up
construction process along with the provision of flexibility of design for
unique site characteristics. Moreover, this can be used in case of
emergencies, where immediate reconstruction is required i.e. in case of
rehabilitation of disaster prone areas (Langdon and Everest, 2004).
17
2.5.2 Benefits of Off-Site Construction
OSC is regarded as cost effective, efficient, sustainable and better quality not
only in selected nations but globally (CRC, 2007). Various benefits of OSC as
identified by previous researchers as follows –
Blismas, Pasquire and Gibb (2006) pointed out that OSC is cheaper in long
term when compared to traditional practise of construction. This is not
possible when component-wise comparison is done, as direct linking of
components is not possible due to the interdependencies among trades,
elements and resources. Moreover, majority of costs are saved, when the on-
site labour is eliminated except the ones required for on-site assembly work.
Jaillon and Poon (2010) argue that OSC products are generally free of
defects, which is rare in case of site built projects because it’s difficult to
achieve an efficient quality control system onsite, unlike factory environment.
This ensures defect free delivery of a project, although not 100%, however,
almost equal to that. Manufacturing of better quality building components is
possible by improved workmanship and supervision of materials in factory-
controlled environment that later results in better quality end product.
Repeated manufacturing of similar type of components of a structure for

number of times at the same place of work, results in greater productivity and
ample savings in time for completion of project (Gibb, 1999; Mason, 2008;
Taur and Devi T, 2009). The overall construction completion time of the
project is reduced with the parallel activities taking place off-site and on-site,
as off-site manufacturing does not interfere with the activities that are to be
carried out on-site, resulting in flexibility of these activities. Moreover,
repeated manufacturing of components is also responsible for ample cost
savings, leading to economical construction. Thus, avoiding time and cost
over-runs (Langdon, 2011). Because of the faster execution of this method as
compared to the traditional one, the reduced time of construction proves to be
beneficial for faster returns on the investments (Shahzad, 2011).
Luther (2009) stressed that use of OSC has led to tackle every aspect of
18
sustainability, as the on-site work is reduced to minimum, quality of work,
reliability and cleanliness is evident. As described in the Smart Market Report
(2011), it reduces the carbon footprint of development with reduced on-site
wastage. Also, OSM of components results better management of
construction site, as there is less on-site material handling. Further resulting in
complete site utilisation (Modular Building Institute, 2011).
OSC permits prototype testing, which particularly is crucial for buildings

planned in the seismic zones. Project outcomes are predictable, which results
in reduction of defects and ultimately reducing the post-construction defect
liability period (Gibb, 1999).
As a matter of fact, on smaller construction sites, when these on-site activities

are shifted to factories for manufacturing, a large number of mishaps that
might take place on-site are reduced, thus promoting health and safety
(Goulding and Arif, 2013; Nadim and Goulding, 2008).
2.5.3 Challenges of Off-Site Construction
There are a lot of challenges and barriers to the successful implementation of

OSC technique in the construction industry, even though it offers various
advantages. As mentioned by Goulding and Arif (2013), in-spite of different
levels of uptake of OSC technology in various nations, the challenges to be
faced by most nations are more or less similar.
2.5.3.1 Inability of Change in Design Post Construction
OSC components usually have an inflexible nature, as modifications in the

design at later stages of project become a challenge. This makes it difficult to
amend changes in the structural as well as non-structural components, while
erecting on-site, OSC generally involves manufacturing of these components
at places other than construction site (Shahzad, 2011).
19
2.5.3.2 Infrastructure Issues
Goulding et al. (2012) identified transportation of OSC components and

logistics as a critical issue. Elements such as weight limit and dimensions of
roads may create a problem in delivery of material to site. Moreover,
limitations on logistics such as inaccessible and small roads prevent the
transportation of larger components (Vernikos et al, 2012). Roy, Roy and
Saha (2008) found that India’s current condition of roads is weaker and that it
is not capable of carrying load of full-scale houses and its careers.
2.5.3.3 Site Constraints
Extra storage space may be required for OSC components if they are
delivered on-site before the actual work starts, leading to improper site
management (Pheng and Chuan, 2001). Moreover, Blismas et al. (2005)
emphasise various restrictions to site layout, which makes it difficult to move
the OSC components around the site.
2.5.3.4 Lack of Skilled Labour
Implementation of OSC in the construction works requires an upfront

substantial engineering effort. Haas and Fagerlund (2002) stress the need of
engineering care in management of interfaces, as OSC Components are
designed in such a way as to match these interfaces in on-site installation. If
there is mismatching of these interfaces, there can be problems due to
inflexibility of components built in workshop because of their incapability to be
modified on spot. This requires skilled labour, thus adding up to the cost.
2.5.3.5 Management and Design Issues
The foremost shortcoming of using OSC is that it takes a longer lead-time,

which is mainly due to the additional requirement of full understanding of the
needs of the construction works. Also, for successful implementation of OSC
project, erection and installation works require close coordination. This
20
requires precise planning and design in order to incorporate the construction
work needs, which is a challenge that needs to be addressed to overcome the
industry’s reluctance to implement Off-Site Construction (Shahzad, 2011).
2.5.3.6 Resistance to Change
Previous researchers indicate that cultural shift is a challenge in developing

nations in order to orient the people in the direction of OSC (Barker, 2003; Arif
and Egbu, 2010). In a country like India, there is lack of awareness of this
technology as compared with the world market, which has resulted in limited
growth of this technology of about 10-15% per year, according to Bahri,
(2013). He also found out that India being a labour-intensive industry,
adoption of OSC would lead to labour cut-downs, which acts as a barrier to
adoption.
2.5.3.7 Un-Revised Planning System and Standards
There is a necessity of codes and standards for better regulation of

manufactured housing construction and design. From the findings of research
conducted by Arif et al (2012), it can see that, the type of the planning system
and few available codes and standards in India, are the significant barriers of
adopting this technology. All these codes and standards setup by the
government should be revisited in order to overcome this barrier.
2.5.3.8 Finance
The implementation of innovative technologies is possible only when there is

an availability of required funds. As similarly mentioned by Muller, Elisabeth
and Zimmermann (2009) that the success of this process will be hindered if
there is no sufficient provision of funds before and during the process. So the
developers are not willing to take a risk, as this technology requires high
upfront investment, as identified in the literature above. The government
21
should provide financial aid to the developers who are willing to invest in this
technology and also reduce the heavy taxation on manufactured products.
2.5.4 Level of Uptake of OSC In India
As identified by the survey carried out by RICS (2010), due to the enormous
housing demand in India, the government along with the construction and
manufacturing industries, is in a position to accept wide range of mechanisms
in order to efficiently produce high quality and greater volume of houses.
Although OSC community is quite well established in India whose maturity is
developing steadily, Bahri (2013) argues that because of lack of awareness of
this technology in India, growth of this technology is very limited. Off-Site
construction/pre-fabrication began in India with the evolution of Hindustan
Housing Factory in early 1950, today, it is run by the government and is
known as Hindustan Prefab Limited (Hindustan Prefab Limited, 2013). Earlier
at the formation of the company, it had intended to produce housing solutions
at lower costs in order to meet requirement. It manufactures precast concrete
throughout India for civil and architectural projects.
Smith and Narayanamurthy (2008) confirm that India is unanimous in moving

from prefab building systems i.e. manufacturing of precast concrete for large
scale production, towards its application in housing and additional sectors of
market. Various efforts have been made by the Government of India to
promote this technology, as identified through survey carried out by
(McKinsey Global Institute, 2010; RICS, 2010).
As stated by Sandhir (2011), ‘India Concept House’ was recently introduced

to the industry stakeholders, which is an example of radical housing solution
that looks forward to change the Indian market. It basically involves an
affordable, sustainable and quick-to-build integrated system of concrete
panels. Previous studies indicate that developers are still reluctant in using
complete prefabrication for housing and opt for partial prefabrication due to
various barriers (Taur and Devi T, 2009). Timberlake (2011) identified that
current products available in the market adopt prefabrication using various
22
methods that lead to varying extents of construction on-site. E.g. 30% OSC
and 70% on-site; 80-90% OSC and 10-20% on-site.
2.5.5 Global Trend of Off-Site Construction Adoption
Off-Site construction is globally accepted in number of construction markets.

The growth in the adoption of this technology has been more or less steady in
the nations where this technology is dominant (Goulding and Arif, 2013). The
United Kingdom, USA, Australia, Malaysia, Japan and few other European
nations can be considered as the countries having accepted OSC on a large
scale. Even though this technology has wide acceptance, its percentage as
compared to the traditional practise is quite low. A study carried out by
Goulding and Arif (2013), identifies Japan as the country having a maximum
share of OSC market with an astonishing contribution of 20%. It produces
almost 70,000 dwellings per year, followed by the US and the UK with a share
of 7% (HAC, 2011) and 6% (Taylor, 2009) respectively. Moreover, recent
studies show that complete modular construction is widely accepted in these
nations unlike India, where partial OSC is evident. There are various factors
responsible for this growth, like initiatives by the government, widespread
awareness among the buyers, suitable infrastructure and building guidelines,
impact of various case studies published by some high profile thinkers and
researchers (Goulding and Arif, 2013). All these factors collectively act as
influential and promoting agents for this technology. As for the UK, high profile
reports such as ‘Rethinking Construction’ by Sir John Egan (199 ), Off-Site
housing Review (2013) made the construction industry realise the importance
of investing in OSC. As for the US, various codes and standards have been
developed in order to regulate manufactured housing construction and design
(HUD, 2013). Arif and Egbu (2010) identified that OSC adoption in China is
not extra-ordinary but it is improving at a quite stable rate and that it has
several opportunities in the future. As for Australia and New Zealand, the
construction industry sees a brighter future in OSC and that it has a vision to
improve the industry with its adoption (Blismas, 2007; Hampson and Brandon,
2004). Moreover, they not only build mass housing with OSC but also the
23
luxurious customised houses. Malaysia is a mature market for OSM, locally
known as Industrialised Building System (IBS), with an established supply
chain and steady development. According to CIDB (2013), the Malaysian
Construction Industry Development Board has founded an official legislature
for provision of OSC that is supported by IBS Centre.
2.6 Literature Findings and Need for Empirical Data Collection
The study of literature on affordable housing and OSC in India, found out that
there is ample shortage of housing in India and affordable housing is the
country’s need today. Affordable housing doesn’t have a perfect definition, but
has various different meanings according to affordability of the buyer. The
literature studied current scenario of affordable housing in India. Also, it
identified the different types of OSC techniques such as Panelised,
Volumetric, Non-volumetric, Modular and Hybrid Systems. There were also
many benefits and barriers identified, which would possibly impact the uptake
of this technology in India. It revealed that OSC is not new to India and it is
used in different forms of prefabrication. Moreover, this literature studied the
level of uptake of this technology in India and its trend in various other
countries.
The reviewed literature emphasised the need to reduce the gap between the
demand and supply of affordable housing. With the stress on formulating
mass housing projects, the literature identified the suitability of OSC for
affordable housing. It was found that use of OSC for affordable housing would
possibly pace up the delivery of these projects with reduction in costs. Thus,
achieving the goal of providing ‘affordable’ housing by reducing the gap of
demand and supply of the same. Moreover, there is a need to overcome the
barriers like poor infrastructure, lack of awareness of OSC, skilled labour,
provision of finance, government policies, etc. for the successful uptake of the
OSC technology in India. The government needs to take measures in order to
overcome these issues. Various case studies were reviewed that
demonstrated the benefits of using this technology. The reviewed literature
24
also found that mostly partial prefabrication is evident in India due to reasons
like poor infrastructure, higher initial costs, etc.
Even though, the literature review focused on first four objectives, it did not
completely meet them. There was a need to peep into the insights of the
issues identified and cross verify them for more precise findings. Mapping the
literature with the crucial findings from the interviewee opinions was
necessary to achieve the objectives, as it would enable the author to critically
analyse the findings to land to final conclusion. So, in order to meet the
objectives and to reach at the deeper understanding of the same, the need to
collect empirical data was felt. The next chapter of this dissertation describes
the research methodology adopted to construct this research.
25
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter establishes an outline of the research methodology that has

been adopted for the accomplishment of all objectives in order to achieve the
aim of this dissertation. The research methodology discusses the types of
data collection techniques that were used and the reason why these
techniques were most appropriate for this research. The data analysis method
used for the analysis of gathered data, is demonstrated with the help of a
flowchart. This chapter ends with ethical considerations, which illustrates the
moral obligations that were carried out during the project and summarising the
research strategy.
3.2 Research Approach
A Research can be defined as a systematic study that includes research

development, testing and its evaluation, which is designed in order to develop
generalised knowledge. It basically includes the collection of objective related
issues and its review (Gracelmc, 2009). A research is generally divided into
two main types depending on the subject matter and the objectives of the
research –
 Quantitative – A quantitative research involves obtaining and analysing

comparatively smaller amount of data from relatively larger number of
subjects (Creswell, 1998).
 Qualitative – A qualitative research is a type of research methodology
that generates a descriptive data with a little emphasis given to
numerical quantification (Thomas, 2009).
Depending on these definitions and considering the nature of this research, its
aim and objectives, the author chose an exploratory qualitative approach over
the quantitative approach. Exploratory qualitative research approach will
credibly and efficiently explore the author’s aim of identifying the feasibility of
26
OSC for affordable housing. As stressed by Fellows and Liu (2008), this
approach investigates the problem to its depth and enables to understand the
problem in the best possible way. The data collected for this qualitative
research brings the author's strong association with the subject, because of
its depth and richness, as it relies completely on participant’s perception,
opinion and views (Naoum, 2010). This makes qualitative approach for this
dissertation more subjective in terms of data.
3.3 Research Method
Case studies, experiments and surveys are three basic type of methods
generally used for quantitative and qualitative approach of research. Case
studies are suitable when research topics are defined in a broader sense (Yin,
2003). Experiments are generally suggested when reliable and objective
results are expected out of a research (Robson, 2003). The author preferred
the method of survey for this dissertation, as it is closely associated with
qualitative approach (Robson, 2002). Survey method enables the author to
retrieve substantial amount of data from a sample size and elaborates the
attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of the participants from the collected
information. Further, this method helps the author to elaborate and make
sense of the gathered data on comparison with the literature (Gray, 2004).
There are basically two types of surveys – Analytical and Descriptive. The
analytical surveys make an effort to describe and give an explanation about
the existence of certain situations, whereas, a descriptive survey is meant to
depict the current trend or the attitude or generally elaborates the current
existence (Gray, 2004). For this research, the author chose to go for the
analytical survey, as the aim of the research was to investigate few variables
that possibly facilitate the use of OSC in the Indian construction market. There
were several other reasons such as restriction of time, limitation of data
access, etc. that compelled the author to adopt this method as most
appropriate method for this research.
27
3.4 Data Collection
Data collection is an important aspect for any research. There are numerous
techniques for data collection and its selection generally depends on the aim
of assessments and the reliability of sources (Gray, 2004; Robson, 2007).
This dissertation adopted different means to collect the primary and
secondary data. The literature i.e. secondary data was gathered through the
means of journal papers, articles, reports, web sources, etc., as suggested by
Biggam (2008). It is one of the most crucial parts of the research, which
affects its quality. Robson (2002) identified methods such as questionnaires –
Electronic/Postal; Interviews – Structured, Semi-structured and Un-structured;
test and scales; observational methods for the collection of primary/empirical
data. The author chose semi-structured interviews as the most appropriate
method for collection of empirical data towards this research, as it provides an
opportunity to retrieve an in depth knowledge from the interviewee on the
topic of interest.
3.4.1 Semi-Structured Interviews
This dissertation used semi-structured interviews, as it controls the number of

interviewees required for the data collection, resulting in saving time and
opens boundaries for the questions in the designed interviews (Biggam,
2008). This leads to an open-ended interview, which allows the researcher to
understand and gather deep knowledge of the area of interest (Creswell,
2003). All these advantages and lack of time led to the selection of this
method of interview. A total of five interviews were carried out with
experienced construction professionals from different departments in the
Indian government services and the construction market, so that triangulation
of findings was possible to ensure the reliability of data (Biggam, 2008). All
the individuals who were interviewed have vast experience and knowledge in
OSC and related activities. The semi-structured interviews gave the author an
opportunity to design flexible set of questions that were put forward to the
interviewees. It was also possible to ask prompt questions during the
28
interviews, which aided the author to deeply investigate the research aim and
objectives (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). Because of India being an
under researched area in the field of OSC, insufficient information created
gaps in the literature. The semi-structured interviews allowed the author to
retrieve maximum information from the interviewees to bridge the possible
gaps in the literature. This approach encouraged more of the extended
responses from the interviewees, which made it possible to raise key issues
to explore their insights.
Following are the people who were interviewed – Interviewee-1: Deputy

Engineer, Central Public Works Department, Government of India;
Interviewee-2: Superintending Engineer at a city Municipal Corporation, body
of State Government in India; Interviewee-3: Past President of an NGO for
real estate developers; Interviewee-4: Associate Vice-President – Civil and
Structural, at a leading construction company in India; Interviewee-5:
Technical Manager at a leading MNCC.
The interviews were conducted during a period of 20 days between 25 th of

July to 15th August 2013. All the interviews except one were conducted with
the help of verbal and visual media. One interview was conducted through
emails, as the interviewee denied both the methods of interviewing. Most of
the interviews lasted for almost an hour to gain extended information. Follow-
up interviews were conducted in few cases to counter the queries identified in
the collected information. Full record of the interviews was made immediately
after every interview and points were noted down.
3.5 Data Analysis
Gray (2004) classified data analysis in two different types – Grounded and
Content Analysis. The method of Content Analysis is used for analysing data
in this research, as it is preferred when exact summary of collected data is
available for the analysis process. As suggested by Biggam (2008), the
process for analysing the data has been carried out in three main steps –
Discussion, Analysis and Synthesis. The collected information was initially
29
read carefully and studied. This information was then divided according to the
author’s categorisation of findings. Later, the data was strategically presented
and described. The systematically arranged and described data was then
analysed to show the contradiction or similarities among the interviewees’
answers/opinions. After the continued analysis of the presented information
was carried out, the key findings of the interviewee opinions were then
synthesised by plotting them versus the information from literature review.
This helped the author to derive crucial findings for this dissertation, in order
to provide recommendations to the Indian construction market. Figure 7
shows the data analysis process according to Biggam (2008).
Figure 7: Process of data analysis for a qualitative research
30
3.6 Limitations and Potential Problems
3.6.1 Credibility of Findings
Credibility, reliability and validity are the three most important things in a
research to make it more genuine, as identified by Creswell (2003). Credibility
is the trustworthiness of the source of data. As for this research, the credibility
was completely dependent on the experience of interview participants.
Reliability can be well defined if there is similarity in results on carrying out
this research again with the use of same methods and data collection
techniques (Creswell, 2003). Threats like participant error and bias,
researcher error and bias, might be evident during data collection (Robson,
2002), avoiding which, the interview transparency and accurate dealing with
the interview questions is possible. All this care has been taken for this
research. Validity of a research is guaranteed when the output of research is
obtained according to what was intended (Gray, 2004). Questions have been
framed direct to the main research objectives, to ensure the validity of this
research. Considering this, the interviewees were strategically chosen to fetch
the right amount and quality of information for this research. The degree of
validity of research will supposedly be increased with this selection of
interview participants, as they possess ample knowledge and experience to
give true and valid opinions.
As limited numbers of people were interviewed, errors were pretty natural. In

order to minimise these errors, a multi-strategy technique of research called
‘triangulation’ is used (Biggam, 2008). All the participants who were
interviewed were strategically chosen from more or less different occupational
background. First interviewee was chosen from the central government body,
second was chosen from the state government body, the third interviewee
came from a non-government organisation (NGO), fourth was from a leading
construction company in India and the fifth interviewee was chosen from a
multi-national construction company (MNCC), however, he had a wide
experience in Indian construction market before getting into that MNCC along
with ample international exposure. Due to this strategic selection of the
31
interviewees from different layers of construction sector, triangulation of data
was possible. This made it easier to minimise the errors and avoid the
question of data reliability and validity.
3.6.2 Ethical Considerations
The author gave a serious thought to the ethical aspects at the initial stages of
inquiry, to ensure innovation and high quality. Here ethics refer to code of
conduct (Reynolds, 1979). It is the researcher’s responsibility to observe the
ethical considerations during the research phase in order to meet the ethical
standards (Stanley, Liz and Wise, 2010).
The most important motive of ethical standards, as identified by Robson

(2002) was, to protect all the research participants during all phases of the
research. As for this research, there is complete awareness of the ethical
considerations. The author identified that some of the collected data might be
sensitive. Considering this, all the participants who were willing to share
valuable data and their experience have been informed about the
confidentiality of the personal contacts. They were also told that all the data
and information provided by them is going to be utilised for academic
purposes only.
Moreover, it is the university’s responsibility to not permit any sort of unethical

act activity during the time of research for which, a system is formulated by
the university to make sure that every research conducted from the university
is done within the ethical boundaries.
3.7 Briefing the Research Strategy
This dissertation commences with a solid literature review that constitutes one
of the most crucial parts of this research. It gives a wider idea of affordable
housing and OSC in India. Due to certain gaps identified in the literature, the
need for empirical data collection is generated. An exploratory qualitative
32
research is adopted for this dissertation with aid of semi-structured interviews,
as tool for empirical data collection and its analysis. The semi-structured
interviews fall in the category of analytical survey method of research. Lack of
data and time, compelled the author to choose this method over the other.
The interviews were conducted through verbal and visual media with some
highly experienced professionals in the Indian Construction Market, who deal
with OSC. The interviews were designed completely on the literature review
conducted, to let the interviewees freely argue issues related to affordable
housing and OSC. Thus, the author was able to collect maximum possible
information.
The gathered information from the interviews was then synthesised with the
help of content analysis method. The analysis of data included collecting the
data and describing it strategically. This valuable information was then
organised to the themes designed by the author. Finally, the data was
analysed by interpreting the interviewee opinions in order to make sense of
the data. This led to draw crucial findings for the research.
All the interviewees were informed about the policy of ethical consideration
and they were asked whether they are comfortable with their names being
quoted in the dissertation or not. All possible efforts were made to make the
data more reliable, valuable and credible. Thus, the phase of data collection
for this research went through semi-structured interviews, which formed a
base for analysis and discussion for this research. The next chapter details
the data collection and analysis phase of this dissertation.
33
CHAPTER 4: DATA COLLECTION – FINDINGS
This chapter strategically describes the collected empirical data, which is then
synthesised to construct this research. As highlighted in the methodology, this
research opted semi-structured interviews, to encourage more of the
extended responses from the interviewees. The key themes studied during
the interviews were – situation of housing in India, issues related to affordable
mass housing, suitability of OSC for affordable housing, benefits and barriers
to the implementation of OSC in India, need and means to promote this
technology in India. All interviews are transcribed in appendix for further
details.
4.1 Empirical Data
4.1.1 India – Growing Demand for Housing
India, basically a country with a population of 1.21 Billion (Census, 2011), is

certainly the second highest populated country in the world. The economy of
India is more or less stable and most of the people living in India come from
the rural areas that live below poverty line (Nelson, 2013). So, poverty is
evident in India even after 66 years of Independence.
Due to poverty in India, there is lot of migration of rural population to the cities
causing their overcrowding. This overcrowding has led to a shortage in land
and so the shortage of housing in urban areas of India, as confirmed by
Interviewees – 1, 2 and 3. Interviewee-3 stated –
“See, basically the thing is that people are migrating from the rural areas to
the urban areas for earnings and due to this migration there is over-crowding
of cities causing shortage of land and housing. Every time a person migrates
in to a city, a requirement for housing is generated.”
Interviewee-4 added to that saying “the government cannot allot houses to the
needy for free of cost, as it will be an addition to their budget”. It alone cannot
take the responsibility of providing houses. Here, the need for private sector
34
participation is generated. Interviewee-1 argued that the shortage for housing
is not going to be reduced until and unless the migration of outsiders is
reduced or restricted to the urban areas.
However, Interviewee-5 held the government responsible for this enormous

housing shortage, as there are no efforts made by the government for
providing housing and even if there is any, huge amount of corruption in the
system makes it difficult for the government to implement these initiatives.
Nation-wide surveys need to be carried out frequently to recognise the
housing demand, in order to meet the same.
The interviewees’ response suggests that migration of rural population to

urban areas is the most important reason for shortage of housing. Findings
point out that poverty is the reason for migration on such a large scale.
However, restricting this migration can reduce the demand of housing and
over-crowding of these urban areas. Moreover, lack of initiatives from
government is also a strong reason for the increasing demand for housing.
One of the interviewee criticised that infrequent surveys and corruption are
the foremost reasons for the ineffective execution of initiatives by the
government.
When asked about the affordable mass housing schemes by the government,
four interviewees except Interviewee-1 were affirmative and supported the
idea of providing mass housing at affordable rates. According to them, it’s a
solution to meet the issue of housing shortage. These initiatives by the
Government of India look forward to uplift the poor and their housing demand,
as identified by Interviewee-4. He stated –
“For the schemes like JNNURM, the Government of India targets the cities,
which are highly populated with migrants; over-crowded and which have huge
amount of slum settlements. Then mass housing projects are sanctioned in
these areas under the tenders opened by the Central government.”
Interviewee-1 was slightly dicey about his opinion and emphasised that such
schemes are beneficial to a certain extent. He further stated “take an example
of Rajiv Awas Yojana, the houses built in these schemes are meant for poor,
and when these poor get the ownership of these houses, they rent it out for
35
some handful earnings. They then move to some other slums which are
‘regulated’ by the politicians to maintain their ‘vote-bank’”. The mentality of
people makes it difficult to meet this demand, as they don’t take advantage of
these schemes, instead derives other sources of making money.
It can be seen from the above opinions that there are efforts made by the
government for welfare of poor, which are beneficial to a certain extent.
However, the mentality of people also plays a major role in achieving these
goals setup by the government of India.
4.1.2 Gaps in Affordable Housing
In-spite of various efforts by government, there were issues with affordable

housing in India. The study carried out by RICS in 2010, identified huge gap in
demand and supply of affordable housing. Various reasons for low production
rate of affordable housing were found, based on interviewee opinions.
Interviewee-4 justified this statement by giving three solid reasons. He said –
“Firstly, as I said bulk of population is migrating to the city areas leading to

over population. Secondly, land is not available readily because of its scarcity.
Thirdly, even if there is availability of land, it is not at affordable rates. Thus,
there is a huge demand and supply gap.”
Interviewees – 1 and 3 backed these statements by further emphasising their

opinions. The Interviewee-3 noted that almost 70% of the housing cost
comprises of land cost, so considering the issue of availability of land,
affordable housing is barely possible in urban areas. Interviewee-1 stressed
the need to reduce migration of outsiders to urban areas. He gave an
example of Mumbai, where huge chunks of migrants from Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, etc. daily enter and reside, leading to overcrowding. Even though the
government produces more number of houses, bridging the gap of supply and
demand will be tough with this inward migration of people in the city areas.
This was not the only reason identified for low rate of production of affordable
houses. Interviewee-2 highlighted the most important reason for low
36
production rate of houses being lesser participation from the private sector for
these projects. He further elaborated the government’s inability to take the
whole and sole responsibility to meet this demand and one cannot completely
rely on the government for this purpose, as the government has various other
issues to take care of. Interviewees – 1 and 3 also verified this opinion and
forced the need of active participation from the private sector.
The norms for Floor Surface Index (FSI) are very stringent, as underlined by
Interviewee-3. Collating this factor with issues of scarcity of land and its high
rates, it becomes difficult to deliver houses at affordable rates.
Interviewee-5 revealed that when the government plans to come up with such
welfare schemes for poor, there is an improper execution of these projects
because of corruption in the system. He stated – “There is corruption at every
stage of execution of these schemes. Until and unless there is no seriousness
towards this issue by the government, there are very few chances of meeting
the demand and supply gap of affordable housing.” This causes delays at
every stage of project, resulting in its late delivery. Thus, affecting the rate of
production of houses.
Having a look at the opinions of interviewees, various implications can be

drawn. As agreed by three interviewees, uncontrolled migration in urban
areas, scarcity of land and soaring prices of land make it difficult for delivery
of affordable housing. Supplementing that, three interviewees also mentioned
less involvement of private sector for welfare projects, because of low
production rate of affordable housing. It was also found that severe FSI
regulations by government become an obstruction to achieving its own
objective. Away from all this, corruption in the system was found out as an
important reason, hindering the pace of delivery of projects.
The interviewees were then interrogated to know the drivers for involvement
of private sector in affordable housing projects. As described by Interviewee-
3, heavy taxation burden such as stamp duty, service tax, etc. in urban areas
make it difficult for private developers to participate in delivering these
schemes, as they have to fetch a heavy premium for affordable housing
37
projects. He further emphasised the government’s need of consistency in
formulating initiatives in favour of private developers. Interviewee-1 also
supported this statement. He opined that firms in private sector do business
only if they are making a profit. They would not want to get into projects with
more work and less profit, because they don’t have the realisation of social
welfare. They wouldn’t hesitate to contribute to these projects, if provided with
some sort of compensation or tax benefits.
“Why doesn’t the government just declare the housing construction sector as
an industry?” Interviewee-3 slammed. According to Interviewee-3, housing as
an independent industry will guarantee all benefits to the housing sector that
are applicable to industrial sector as well. This could encourage active
participation from private sector to contribute for the government oriented
projects. Interviewee-1 also agreed to that. Interviewee-2 defended the
government by informing that from the recent past, government is actually
taking initiatives in favour of builder lobby for housing construction. It is
encouraging Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), so risk is shared between
the private sector and government, which enables distribution of investment
burden. Attempts are made by both sectors to declare the housing
construction sector as an industry.
All the interviewees stressed the need for government’s effort to involve
private developers in government-oriented projects. The need to give the
private sector some sort of incentives in return for their involvement was
realised. A thought was given to the declaration of the housing sector as an
industry. Moreover, it was identified that recently the government is getting
into PPPs, as an effort in favour of private sector.
4.1.3 Benefits from OSC
Moving on to OSC, which is practiced as ‘prefabrication’ in India, interviewees

were then asked about its various benefits offered and it will offer to India.
The interviewees identified benefits such as reduced cost and time of
38
construction, reduction in labour, improved sustainability and standardisation,
improved health and safety, etc. The reduction in time of construction and the
cost were found as the major benefits offered.
The benefits were categorised as –
Manufacturing Benefits –
All five interviewees indicated speed of construction and reduction in cost of

construction, as the most evident benefits. Plenty of construction cost is saved
with reduction in use of materials, elimination of on-site wastage and use of
economical designs, as confirmed by Interviewee-5. Overall cost of
construction is saved to a greater extent when repeated designs are
manufactured in factories. Interviewee-4 cleared, “It is cheaper in long-term
use, no doubt it is a bit expensive initially, but with the reduction in labour and
various other reasons, this technology proves to be quite cheaper.” Due to
minimal error in factory manufactured components, reduction in time of
delivery of a project can be achieved with OSC avoiding the time over-runs,
which if not met would result in penalties. As similarly identified by
Interviewee-2, most of the civil engineering projects suffer financial losses
because of time over-runs.
Even though OSC requires skilled labour, training required for labour to
operate the machinery is much easier, as most of the processes are standard
and don’t need much understanding, as described by Interviewee-5.
Moreover, Interviewee-3 pointed that health and safety issues of labour are
met, as most of the activities are carried out off-site unlike traditional
construction where there are possibilities of mishaps, as all activities are
carried out on-site. Thus, increasing the possibility of risk.
Construction Benefits –
These include benefits related to process and delivery of a project.

Interviewee-1 mentioned quality assurance by standardised factory
manufacturing of components, which is responsible for its durability. With
assurance of quality and durability, strong life of the product is guaranteed.
39
The supply chain is reduced in OSC, as it is possible to work on the building
as whole, thus simplifying overall construction process, Interviewee-5
confirmed. Sustainability is a very important issue achieved by adopting OSC.
As most of the on-site activities are shifted to the factory, “due to reduction in
waste, sustainability issues are eliminated to a greater extent” as, told by
Interviewee-4.
Opinions provided by the interviewees suggest that in-spite of high initial cost
of OSC; ample savings in time and reduction in cost of construction is
possible. Huge labour cut-downs add to the cost savings. Also, training
required for labour is easy to execute because of the standard processes.
Shifting of most of the activities in factories away from the construction site
will result in improved sustainability due to waste reduction, improved health
and safety due to less on-site mishaps and precision in work due to quality
control.
4.1.4 Potential Barriers for OSC
Even though OSC is not new to India, its growth has been limited (Bahri,
2013). This signifies the presence of barriers that refrain the uptake of this
technology in India. When asked about barriers of OSC in India, the
interviewees came up with numbers of factors that acted as potential barriers,
in-spite of the benefits they mentioned.
Challenges with Builder and Buyer –
Interviewee-3 mentioned that, as for the builder fraternity, investors are not
willing to take risk by investing such a big amount in this technology.
Compared to the traditional method, this method is twice as much costly. As
for the buyer, the traditional mind-set will compel them to doubt this
technology, which will result in its non-acceptance, even though the project is
executed with utmost care and precision. They are not willing to accept this
change from the traditional building practice. Interviewees – 2 and 4 also
agreed to this statement. In addition, Interviewee-1 said, “Till the time people
40
actually get to see the live examples of these off-site construction projects,
they won’t actually accept it. Just like a child building a house like a mechanic
with a few blocks in hand, similarly when people see something like a
manufactured building, their doubt on the safety and quality of the building is
obvious.” He and Interviewee-2 identified the need to create awareness and
educate people regarding benefits of using this technology. Moreover,
Interviewee-5 explained that builder lobby is also responsible for refusal of
this technology. As this might be a reason for loss in their business where
they opt traditional building practise.
Challenges with Labour –
According to Interviewees – 3 and 4, to manufacture and deliver a finished

product i.e. successful execution of OSC, skilled labour is required. In-spite of
such huge population of construction sector, there is an acute shortage of
skilled labour in India. Looking at the situation of labour in India, Interviewee-2
suggested educating labour in order to overcome this barrier of unskilled
labour. As India is a very big construction market, it offers jobs to millions of
labour for their bread and butter. Interviewee-1 criticised that uptake of this
technology will lead to mechanisation by manufacturing building components.
This will result in huge labour cut downs leading to unemployment, which will
be considered as an ‘anti-social move’. He justified this by giving an example
–
“In India, we have labour who actually sweep roads, whereas the developed
nations use mechanical sweepers.”
Challenges with Infrastructure and Logistics –
Interviewees – 3 and 5 accepted that poor condition of roads in India makes it

difficult to safely deliver manufactured components on-site because of
possibility of damage during transit. Further, Interviewee-3 commented on
road standards for widths in India that stressed the possibility of hindrance to
transport of manufactured components of greater dimensions. The
dimensions of roads in India would not accommodate the transportation of
these manufactured components of buildings, which are bigger in size.
41
Interviewee-1 prioritised this statement in context of affordable housing and
stated that sizes of affordable houses are pretty small as compared to normal
houses. Moreover, a room would be maximum of 10ft*10ft in size, with its
height also being somewhat similar. So transporting these components is not
a problem in India. Further, Interviewee-4 identified that if the manufacturing
units are far from the actual construction site, then transportation of these
components will considerably add to the cost.
Challenges with Finance –
Very high initial cost of setting up this technology for manufacturing and
erecting building components is required, as identified by Interviewee-3.
People hesitate to invest such huge amounts on their own risk in such
technology, which is scarcely practised in India. Interviewee-4 argued to this
saying, “the technology itself is not costlier but the taxes imposed on the
products, by the government are quite higher, thus making it an expensive
technology.” The government does not provide special funds to promote the
uptake of this technology. Moreover, it takes very few initiatives in
encouraging the newer technologies in market. Interviewee-1 modified this
statement and confirmed that requirement of initial capital to setup a factory or
an industry is evident, but in-spite of this big investment, the producer of this
technology will retain his profits at faster rate during later stages. Also, he
confirmed that the government is taking steps to declare housing as an
industry, which will result in management of finance and benefits from the
government.
Design and Process Inflexibility –
It is almost impossible to amend the design, once the structure is erected.

Also, inflexibility of designs does not give options to provide a variety of
designs to the customer. Moreover, all designs should be ready upfront before
manufacturing, limiting its flexibility for this process; Interviewee-5 identified
this as a crucial shortcoming.
From the opinions of the interviewees, it can be seen that firstly, the
challenges are more related with the mind-set of builder and the buyer of this
42
technology. Traditional mind-set of these two makes it difficult for the uptake
of technology. There is a need to create awareness among people and
educate them regarding the benefits. Secondly, obtaining skilled labour in
India becomes a challenge. Moreover, uptake of this technology results in
unemployment due to automation, which is a barrier from the social aspect
point of view. Thirdly, the current Indian infrastructure is questionable for
defect free delivery of manufactured components. For affordable housing, the
road dimensions won’t be a problem due to smaller si e of components.
Fourthly, large initial investment is a very common reason why builders don’t
practise this technology. However, the government is making efforts to meet
the problem of finance. And lastly, it was found that due to inflexibility of
design and process, making amendments at later stages of construction
becomes difficult. These barriers have become a matter of concern and need
to be addressed at the earliest for the success of this technology in India.
4.1.5 Suitability of OSC for Affordable Housing
OSC technology seems to be way superior to traditional methods of

construction, after going through the benefits stated by the interviewees. But,
because of the barriers for its use in India, there are issues with its uptake.
It is observed that this technology is not widely used in India when compared
to other nations. Based on his international exposure, Interviewee-5 shared
insights about India’s uptake of OSC in comparison with different nations. He
identified that countries like US, UK, China are way ahead of India and have
made use of this technology in almost every type of construction. These
countries have opted prefabrication for housing in the form of modularisation
in recent past. Whereas, in India the uptake has been low but since 2002, a
number of industrial projects came up that used this technology by the name
‘Pre-Engineered Buildings’. The demand is growing these days and slowly
getting into housing sector.
Prefabrication in the form of precast panels, smart walls, siporex blocks, etc.
is quite popular these days. All these have been incorporated for housing
43
sector at various levels but mostly partial prefabrication is evident till date, as
confirmed by Interviewee-1. He also informed that there has been wide use of
prefabrication for industrial and infrastructure projects, but housing sector still
shows a scanty demand of complete OSM. Interviewee-3 informed about the
use of partial prefabrication by their company for the construction of
temporary housing in Mumbai during the recent slum rehabilitation program.
He mentioned that its construction proved to be quite faster and cheaper,
which helped them evacuate the slum dwellings at the earliest, for its
rehabilitation.
However, he did not completely support the use of this technology for
affordable housing. Instead, he suggested various new technologies like
Aluform that can be used on-site for speedy construction to reduce overall
cost. As for OSC, its economical feasibility for affordable housing in India is
questionable. The initial investment is high and requires skilled labour for
implementation, which might not result in provision of housing at affordable
costs.
Interviewee-4 believed in a greater benefit from OSC to affordable housing.

He suggested that delivering houses to the needy would become quite faster
as compared to traditional construction, thus bridging the gap of demand and
supply of affordable housing. At the same time, lower consumption of
materials and reduction in labour would result in reduced cost of housing
delivery. Moreover, it is cheaper in long-term, so building houses in future
would become more cheaper as the capital invested in its adoption would be
recovered by then. Interviewee-5 also came up with similar opinion when
asked about its suitability for affordable housing. He highlighted the issues of
thefts and robberies on construction sites in India. When all the activities will
be carried out off-site, there is a very limited scope for all these encounters,
thus adding to the economy of project.
Interviewee-1 advised use of OSC for affordable housing by giving an

example of the recent infrastructure project in Nashik. They built the longest
flyover in Maharashtra of a length of 5.8 kilometres. It opted almost
completely prefabricated units for its construction. Keeping aside the delays
44
due to political pressure and land acquisition, the construction process was
completed well before targeted time. The project was executed quite well
without single mishap during construction. Due to its assured quality, it has
been a great success. He suggested this technology for affordable housing
after learning from this project. Even though prefabrication hasn’t been used
for affordable housing earlier in India, but these days it is slowly getting into
housing. This would prove to be quite beneficial to achieve the government’s
objective of providing affordable housing.
It can be seen that level of uptake of this technology hasn’t been that great in
India. It has been mostly used for industrial and infrastructure purposes. For
housing sector, there has been use of partial prefabrication, at smaller extent.
However, opinions of interviewees suggest that this technology would prove
to be beneficial in providing affordable housing to India, considering the
enormous shortage of these houses in urban India. Only one interviewee was
dicey about its feasibility in India. His opinion suggested that its economic
feasibility is still questionable. This might be because of its fewer use in
housing that can be considered as examples to learn from.
4.1.6 Future Strategy – Way Ahead
Today, affordable housing is a growing need of low-income population in

India. It is necessary to address this problem to meet the housing demand.
But, it seems that there are various barriers that are hindering the fulfilment of
this demand, which need to be met early on.
The migration of people from the rural to urban areas is a greater concern.
There is a need to address this issue to control the housing demand. The
government should introduce laws that will control this migration. At the same
time it is the government’s responsibility to meet the needs of these people in
their zone of residence, which becomes the reason for their migration,
Interviewee-4 advised. Interviewee-3 identified the need to make land
available in urban areas for construction of these kinds of welfare projects for
the poor. He said that government has ample land reserved for schemes like
45
these but corruption in the system makes it difficult for its appropriate use.
The private sector needs to be encouraged to participate in such projects, to

boost the rate of production of houses. This encouragement should be in the
form of incentives or tax reduction or any form of benefit that will attract the
builder lobby towards these schemes, Interviewee-5 cleared. Moreover,
declaring construction sector as an industry would be a bonus from the
government, because of various benefits it offers to an industry.
Moving from traditional practise of construction to OSM would be a wiser

option, to meet the housing demand. Interviewee-1 said, “Awareness and
education is what you need to promote this technology”. The government
should take the responsibility to convince the private sector to opt this
technology and ‘both’ of these should take the responsibility to convince the
‘buyer’ to accept this technology. It is necessary to make the buyer realise the
advantages of this technology by presenting an advantage model. Arranging
site visits to ready sites that used this technology, presenting samples,
conducting interviews with people who are already its users and advertising
them, etc. can do this, Interviewee-1 advised. This will increase the
confidence of buyer in this technology.
Interviewee-2 suggested educating labour in order to meet the higher

percentage of unskilled manpower of the labour market in India. This is
necessary as they are used to the traditional building practice. These can be
educated through webinars, seminars or by demonstration. Moreover, the
infrastructure needs to be taken care of by the government, by improving the
quality of roads, revising road standards, so that logistics is not a problem.
Interviewee-5 insisted to learn from international best practises of opting this

technology. He suggested that government should setup an authority that is
dedicated completely to housing issues. They need to revisit building
guidelines and modify them. Heavy taxation should be taken off from the
sector of housing. This authority should make sure that the developers are
provided with adequate funds that are willing to invest in projects for
affordable mass housing. For the uptake of OSC, the government should form
46
mergers with the companies who already practice this technology, so that this
technology can be transferred to housing.
In-spite of various benefits of OSC, Interviewee-3 was of the opinion that for
now it would be beneficial to go ahead with partial OSC for affordable housing
instead of complete. This is because there is still a doubt about its economic
feasibility to India. Also opting this technology for projects like affordable
housing shouldn’t turn out to be a disaster, with increase in the cost of house
instead of decrease.
The views above suggest that it is not difficult to execute affordable housing in
combination with OSC in India. A number of challenges need to be overcome.
It all depends on the governments will, as they can make things happen
according to what they desire. Firstly, it is necessary for the government to
make land available at subsidised rates and encourage private sectors
involvement for these schemes. Creating awareness of OSC and educating
labour for the uptake of this technology is necessary. The infrastructure needs
improvement and various building guidelines need to be revisited by forming
an authority that is completely dedicated to issues related to housing. It was
found that four interviewees are of the opinion of opting OSC for affordable
housing with the hope that things will change, whereas, one interviewee
stressed that it is good to go with partial OSC for now.
The next chapter of this dissertation carries out the synthesis of data gathered
from the interviews.
47
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the focus is mainly on crucial findings from the empirical data.
It reflects the comparison of empirical data with the literature review, which
enables the author to criticise the findings that lead to a feasible way out for
implementing the whole idea of this research. India being an under-
researched area in context of OSC, the findings obtained may further add to
the literature.
5.1 Synthesis of Data
Findings reveal that housing shortage in India is closely associated with

migration of people from rural to the urban areas. The literature review
confirms with these findings, as it emphasises that most of the Indian
population lives below the poverty line and source of earnings being the most
important reason for their migration from the rural to urban areas (RICS, 2010;
Nelson, 2013). In addition to the literature, it is important to note that in-spite
of various government led initiatives in order to tackle the housing issue,
corruption in the system makes it difficult for their execution. So, corruption
becomes an extended hitch resulting in instability of demand and supply of
housing.
The literature review indicates the government’s effort in formulating number

of initiatives such as JNNURM, Rajiv Awas Yojana, etc., in favour of housing
for the poor. These are quite beneficial and look forward to meet the
enormous demand of housing (MHUPA, 2012a). The responses gathered in
findings are somewhat similar but they highlight the cases where there is sub-
renting of these houses, where the owners put their houses on lease. Sub-
renting becomes an additional source of income to these poor people, but that
further generates a housing demand. This makes it difficult for the success of
such schemes introduced by the government, reminding that it also depends
on the tendency and mind-set of these poor people. Thus, these schemes are
beneficial to some extent and serious measures need to be taken to prevent
48
its unauthorised use from happening.
The findings from the empirical data identified migration of people, scarcity of
land and its soaring prices, lack of involvement of private sector in
government oriented projects, as the crucial reasons for widening the gap of
demand and supply of affordable housing. The literature review confirms
these shortcomings for the urban areas (RICS, 2010; Jones Lang LaSalle,
2012; KPMG, 2012) but does not mention the need to revise the FSI
regulations. One of the interviewee pointed out the need to revise the FSI
norms, as it becomes impossible to deliver houses in urban areas with lower
FSIs. Scarcity of land along with enormous inflation in land rates refrains the
private developers from participating in projects like these, for the welfare of
poor. Hence, need to revise the FSI norms is generated to seek the private
developers’ participation, as they are more into luxury projects, which is
exactly what is not demanded by the needy people.
As identified by the KPMG report (2012), there has been a significant

contribution from the private developers in reduction of demand and supply
gap of affordable houses. The literature review highlighted a number of
drivers for the involvement of the private developers in the government-
oriented welfare projects. The main drivers looked at providing finance for
projects; technological and project delivery solutions (KPMG, 2012). The
primary focus for this involvement of private developers in government led
projects is to improve the rate of production of affordable housing. The
findings verified the government’s need to provide certain incentives in favour
of private sector in the form of finance and additional benefits. However, it
identified the need to declare housing sector as an Industry and also
suggested to encourage the PPPs. It is interesting to know that with the
housing sector getting the status of an Industry, number of benefits that are
applicable to the Industry sector, will be applicable to the housing sector. This
will encourage the private sector involvement and the government is also
taking steps towards this, according to one of the interviewee. Moreover, with
the introduction of PPPs, a lot of burden of risks will be shared between the
government and the private sector. This will boost the confidence of the
49
private sector investors in such projects, as the risks will directly be halved.
The literature review stated that with the adoption of OSM, there is ample
reduction in time of construction because most of the on-site activities are
shifted to factories for manufacturing, as just on-site installation is necessary
(Langdon, 2011). The findings are completely in-line with the literature. This
will lead to avoiding time over-runs in project delivery, further avoiding heavy
penalties. The construction cost is also reduced due to waste reduction and
repeated manufacturing of components. Moreover, labour cut downs result in
huge cost savings, as most of the labour is required on-site for assembling the
components. The literature reviewed the similar benefit of adopting OSC
(Blismas, Pasquire and Gibb, 2006). It is important to note that shifting most
of the on-site activities to factories is a crucial move that offers benefits such
as generation of minimal amount of waste, which would further result in
sustainability and improved health and safety because of less on-site
mishaps. However, the literature suggested quality controls in the factory
environment as the reason for precision in work (Jaillon and Poon, 2010),
whereas the findings suggest repeated manufacturing as the reason for
precision. It is interesting to know that both the ideas lead to the same result,
which acts as a benefit for opting OSC.
According to the literature review, there are various challenges to adopting

OSC, most of them being similar in all nations that already practise this
technology (Goulding and Arif, 2013). These mainly included inflexibility of
design, lack of skilled labour, consumer’s resistance to change, finance and
un-revised planning system (Haas and Fagerlund, 2002; Barker, 2003; Arif
and Egbu, 2010, Shahzad, 2011; Arif et al, 2012; Zimmerman, 2009). The
findings somehow agreed to these challenges. As, India is a developing
nation, the people here are used to traditional methods of construction and
are not willing to accept the advanced technologies due to lack of awareness.
Also, there is an ample shortage of skilled labour, as the traditional building
practise does not employ much of the skilled labour. Surprisingly, the
literature did not mention what the findings reflected, in context of India. India
is a country where the construction sector employs millions of labour on the
50
basis of daily wages, so, in-spite of huge cut down in labour with use of OSC
that results in reduced costs, adopting OSC on large scale will lead to
enormous unemployment, resulting in an ‘Anti-Social’ move. Moreover, the
literature mentioned that road standards would be a problem for the logistics
of the built components (Vernikos et al, 2012; Roy, Roy and Saha, 2008). But,
the findings somehow contradict the literature. As for affordable housing, the
component sizes would be considerably small and the current road standards
can easily accommodate its logistics.
There is not much uptake of OSC for housing in India and most of its use has
been for commercial and industrial purposes. These findings somehow do not
comply with the literature. The literature emphasises use of OSC for various
housing schemes and clarifies that the government is also making effort to
promote this technology for housing (Smith and Narayanamurthy, 2008;
Sandhir, 2011). The hitch is that there is no growth of this technology because
of lack of awareness. There have been housing projects, where they have
adopted various levels of OSC (Timberlake, 2011), however, no example,
where there is use of complete prefabrication. Findings and literature, above,
do not obey each other, thus reflecting poor awareness of this technology in
India.
The findings agree with the literature on the idea that OSC is truly beneficial
when clubbed with affordable housing. It will increase the speed of housing
delivery to meet the gap of demand and supply of houses and will reduce the
cost of housing that will suffice the criteria of affordable housing. Moreover, it
will provide ‘good quality’ houses at affordable rates. The literature provides a
wide scope to learn from the example of Japan, where it has succeeded in
building almost 70,000 dwellings every year with the use of OSC technology
(Goulding and Arif, 2013). It is interesting to know that India’s adoption of this
technology on a wider scale will prove to be a brilliant move in achieving the
target of meeting the enormous housing demand.
A long line of studies carried out enables the author to draw implications. The
migration of large population from rural to urban areas leads to the over-
crowding of cities, which further results in growing demand of housing. The
51
involvement of private sector in the government-oriented projects plays a key
role in meeting the housing demand. And in-spite of various barriers of OSC,
it is suitable for affordable housing because of its advantages such as lower
cost of construction and reduced time of delivery. Provided there is an effort to
overcome the barriers. Further, a strategy is recommended for the
implementation of the whole idea of this research.
5.2 Strategy for Implementation
After closely examining the data retrieved from the literature and the interview
findings, it was found that OSC is feasible for building affordable houses in
India. There is a need to overcome various barriers that hinder the execution
of this process. As a part of recommendation and the suggestions made by
the interviewees in the findings chapter, a strategy is developed to bring this
idea of affordable housing with OSC in to reality. It is as follows –
1. Need to control the migration – The uncontrolled migration of bulk of

population from the rural to urban areas results in overcrowding of
cities, which adds to the growing housing demand (KPMG, 2012). The
government should control this migration by revising and implementing
laws in favour of this.
2. Encourage private sector involvement – The government should
encourage the private sector to participate in affordable housing
projects, as their participation plays an important role in meeting the
housing demand (KPMG, 2012). The government should make land
available at subsidised rate for these projects. The taxes imposed,
stamp duties, etc. for these projects should be reduced, FSI norms
should be made more flexible and subsidies should be provided to the
housing construction sector. Government can also encourage the
private sector by getting into more number of mergers or PPPs with
them.
3. Declare housing as Industry – Even though the government is taking
steps to give housing the status of an industry, but this needs to pace-
52
up. The housing sector will enjoy benefits of industry after this decision
of government. This will act as a driver for private sector involvement.
4. Finance availability – Finance should be made available to the
developers who are willing to invest in these projects. As high initial
investment is required for this and it becomes very difficult for the
small house builders to arrange this big capital. Moreover, loans
should be easily made available to the private developers.
5. Need to challenge the perception of people – The house builders are
reluctant in investing in OSC (Barker, 2003). They should be
demonstrated with the OSC techniques for the realisation of its
superiority over the traditional building practises.
6. Create Awareness – There is an acute need to create an awareness
of OSC among the buyers. The buyer is doubtful about the quality and
durability of the houses built from OSC technology. They should be
made aware of the various advantages of using off-site built products,
by actually making them visit some sample sites. One of the
interviewee made an important suggestion of introducing special
subject related to this technology in various technical institutes in
India.
7. Educate and Train labour – There is a need to educate the labour
required for this technology. The training of labour is much easier
compared to the traditional building practise. All this can be done with
help of seminars, webinars, actual demonstrations, etc.
8. Setup a Committee – A separate committee should be set-up by the
government, which will look at all the issues, related to this technology.
This committee should be in a position to make the amendments and
revise the building guidelines, look into the infrastructure issues, etc.
Moreover, there is a need of flexible planning, as obtaining permission
for planning is a tedious process and takes a longer time. This hinders
the use of OSC.
9. Promoting OSC – The government can encourage the use of this
technology by providing certain incentives to the developers who are
investing in this technology. The political levers play an important role
in promotion of this technology, since they are responsible for
53
formulating bills for tax reductions and subsidies. Learning from the
international best practises, Goulding and Arif (2013) stress the
importance of various case studies and reports published by high
profile thinkers and researchers, which act as influencing agents for
promoting OSC. It is recommended to the researchers and thinkers in
India to come-up with such publishing to create awareness and
promote this technology in India.
The next chapter aims at drawing conclusions for this dissertation based on
the crucial findings of the study to decide the feasibility of OSC for affordable
housing.
54
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
This chapter focuses on summarising the crucial findings for this research,
which is a conclusion dedicated to each objective of this dissertation that has
helped achieving the dissertation aim. This also involves giving
recommendations, limitations of the research and the further scope of
research.
6.1 Summarising Crucial Findings
This research has set out the background for the housing situation and its
issues in India. It has unveiled the large-scale shortage of housing. This
housing shortage is evident mostly for the population that lies in the
economically weaker section and the lower income group of India. The most
important reason for this shortage is the migration of these people from rural
areas to the urban areas.
Even though there are efforts made by the government to meet the housing
demand, the rate of production of affordable housing is very low. There are
various factors that are responsible for this low rate of production. As the
government cannot take the complete responsibility to meet this demand,
there is a need of active participation from the private sector. Scarcity of land
in urban areas, soaring high prices of land and lower FSI norms, result in
lower participation of the private sector in these government-oriented projects.
There are several benefits of OSC, but reduction in cost and time of
construction and good quality of construction are the major benefits of this
technology. These benefits act as drivers to the use of this technology.
Moving on to the barriers of implementing OSC, lack of awareness of this
technology and generation of unemployment are the severe issues. Lack of
awareness results in non-acceptance of this technology from the buyer side
and reduction in large amount of labour results unemployment, which acts as
an anti-social move. Lack of skilled labour and finance are the issues that
hinder the uptake of this technology to a considerable extent, as this restricts
55
the user to invest in this technology.
The current uptake of OSC in India has been quite steady, but there is no
growth as such because of lack of awareness of this technology. This growth
is likely to improve with time, provided considerable measures are taken to
promote the technology. The government has an important role in promoting
this technology. It is necessary to overcome the identified barriers for its
successful uptake.
Advanced technologies like OSC are bound to provide added benefits to the
developing nations like India. In-spite of various barriers to using OSC, this
research proves that its combination with affordable housing will prove to be a
very beneficial and effective solution, in order to meet the enormous housing
demand in India. The government’s objectives of meeting the affordable
housing demand will be fulfilled with the help of three main benefits offered by
OSC technology – reduced cost of construction, reduced time of housing
delivery and superior quality homes at affordable prices.
Finally, the current situation of housing and the trend of off-site construction in
India were understood with the help of presented literature and the data
collected through the interviews. Based on this, the research proposed a
strategy for the successful implementation of affordable housing with the
application of the technology of OSC. This strategy depends on the opinions
of the interviewees and the international best practises. Here, all the
objectives of the dissertation are met, in order to achieve the aim of this
dissertation.
6.2 Recommendations
At the end of this research, the author spotted some gaps, which can be
rectified by the following recommendations –
It was found that the private developers are not willing to invest in welfare
projects because they don’t earn big margin of profits in these projects. There
is a necessity for these developers to start thinking from the social welfare
56
point of view and start doing for the public instead of just making profit. As
recommended in the implementation strategy above, when the government
restricts the uncontrolled migration of people, care should be taken to make
available the sources of income to these people, which becomes their prime
reason for migration from rural to urban areas. Lastly, it is the responsibility of
the people living in this country to accept change and move on to newer and
innovative construction technologies, in order to transform from developing
nation to a developed one.
6.3 Limitations and Scope for Further Research
This research studied the current housing situation in India and checked the
feasibility of off-site construction for building affordable houses. Depending on
this, a future strategy for its implementation was also proposed. However, the
research encountered a few limitations as it focussed mainly on interviewees
who were based particularly in one zone of India. This resulted in lack of data
for the research, so the strategy proposed, may or may not be effective in
various other zones of the nation. Moreover, time was a constraint, which
resulted in less number of interviews to gather data. Further, there is a huge
scope for research in the field of affordable housing and OSC, as India is an
under-researched area. This dissertation might act as an entry strategy for
OSC technology in to the housing construction sector in India. This calls for
further research in the related areas of interest.
57
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Appendices:
Appendix 1: Interview-1
1. What according to you are the probable reasons for housing shortage
in India?
Ans: Less Support from the government. Fewer benefits are given to the
housing sector as compared to the industrial sector. Because of this, there
is no one getting into this innovative idea for providing houses at low cost.
And most importantly people are rushing towards the city areas at very
high rates. So there is no point in providing housing schemes. This
shortage is going to be evident until and unless the migration of these
people is going to stop from backward areas to the cities. If they are
provided with all these facilities in the original places, then there is a
possibility of meeting this housing shortage.
2. o you think the government’s idea of Mass Housing will suffice the
problem of housing shortage?
Ans: There are benefits to some extent on the introduction of such
schemes. It is possible to meet this housing shortage with schemes like
this but the main problem is – Take an example of schemes like JNNURM,
RAJIV AWAS YOJANA – these houses are meant for the poor and so
when they get the ownership of these houses, after some days they rent it
out for extra earnings and move into some other slums whose regulation is
assured by the politicians to maintain their ‘vote-bank’. This again gets
back to the original problem. The tendency of people plays an important
role in meeting this housing demand as they don’t take the advantage of
these schemes instead derive other sources of making money.
3. Why do you think there is such a low production rate of affordable

houses? (The reason for huge gap in demand and supply)
Ans: As I mentioned earlier, basically the migration of the people from rural
areas to cities should be stopped/reduced, which causes the increase in
population density of the urban areas leading to urbanization, which further
66
results in shortage of housing. Now, take an example of a city like
Mumbai, where hundreds of people migrate daily from places like rural
areas of UP, Bihar, etc. and reside here. This creates the increase in
population of Mumbai. So, even if the government provides the schemes
for affordable housing, the gap in demand and supply of the affordable
houses is going to be evident, because of the increasing number of
population leading to increased demand. This is not the only reason for
low production, there is very less involvement of the private sector in these
projects. The government alone cannot meet this issue of bridging the gap
of demand and supply.
4. Why do you think Off-Site Construction would assist in providing

affordable houses? How Suitable is it?
Ans: Off-Site Construction will prove to be quite suitable for Affordable
housing projects. The most important aim of affordable housing is to
provide housing at lower costs. With the use of prefabrication, comes the
mass production of houses, quality construction, speedy construction,
combination of all these factors will basically result in housing at affordable
rates. Moreover, transportation of the components for such houses is also
easy as their sizes are pretty small as compared to the normal houses eg;
Max. of 10ft*10ft. And this is easy to transport. Even the height of such
components is not that much.
5. What according to you would be drivers for involvement of Private

Developers for Affordable Housing Projects? (Literature suggests that
currently very few private developers are investing in such projects and
are investing more in the Luxury type of projects, as they have to fetch
a premium for the projects like Affordable housing, so the government
solely takes-up such projects as a part of welfare).
Ans: In India, the private sector always does business for the sake of
money and nothing else. The private developers don’t want to get in to
things where there is more amount of work and less margin of profit eg:
they would rather work for Rs. 1-10 and make a profit of Rs. 100. They are
interested in getting into such works, as these are more of the social
67
welfare types. They don’t have the reali ation of contributing to the social
activity. If they are provided with any sort of incentives such as tax benefits
or any sort of benefits, they would not hesitate to take-up such projects.
Today, the housing construction sector in India does not have the status of
an industry. The government should declare the housing sector as an
industry, so that all the benefits such as tax benefits and many other
benefits that apply to the industrial sector, would be applicable to the
housing. This will bring about active participation from the private sector in
such projects. So basically, if these private developers are given some sort
of benefits in return of their participation, they will not hesitate to contribute
for such projects.
6. What are the benefits of Off-Site Construction to India? Why? Can you
rate them according to current need?
Ans: Quality of construction is improved to a greater extent, there is ample
reduction in time of construction, low consumption of materials, less
wastage of materials, durability, cost efficiency, etc.
7. What are the barriers to the implementation of Off-Site Construction in

India? Why? Can you rate them according to the severity?
Ans: Mentality of people – both the developer and the consumer – is a big
challenge. People are not ready to accept this technology because of its
fewer use in the country. Till the time people actually get to see the live
examples of these off-site construction projects, they won’t actually accept
it. Just like a child building a house like a mechanic with a few blocks in
hand, similarly when people see something like a manufactured building,
their doubt on the safety and quality of the building is evident. Various
questions would arise in peoples mind – what is the safety of this house?
In case of an earthquake or any natural calamity, will it resist the impact?
Just like the traditional houses do resist all this. Awareness is a greater
issue that needs to be addressed. The existing builder may be an
opposition to the uptake of this technology, as there might be a possibility
of decrement in the business, where they opt for the traditional building
practices. As, India is a country where construction sector offers jobs to
68
millions of labour for their bread and butter, introduction of this technology
will bring about the reduction in labour as all the manufacturing will be
automated, resulting in huge cut downs in labour recruitment. This will be
counted as an anti-social move. Just like in India we have labour, which
actually sweep roads, whereas the developed nations use the mechanical
sweepers for this purpose. Thus, automation in the industry will result in
unemployment. Infrastructure and finance is not a barrier. The
infrastructure will surely support the transport of the manufactured
components. Also, the when you think of setting up a factory or an
industry, initial investment in that is evident, no matter the producer who
uses this technology will retain his profits at a faster rate. Moreover, when
housing construction sector is given the status of industry, many benefits
can be achieved which result in availability of finance. So even finance is
not a barrier.
8. How can you possibly overcome these challenges?

Ans: Creating awareness and making people realize will surely overcome
the barrier of acceptance of this technology. By declaring the construction
sector as an industry, ample barriers can be met with.
9. To what degree do you think Off-Site Construction techniques are

being used (Level of Uptake) in the Indian Construction Industry and
why?
Ans: Frankly speaking for affordable housing, this technology is hardly
been used in India. Prefabrication is used in the form of precast panels,
smart walls, siporex blocks and walls for the construction of housing. No
matter there is no complete prefabrication used till date for any of the
housing projects. Prefabrication is quite evident in infrastructure projects.
Eg: the flyover recently constructed in Nasik, opted almost completely
prefabricated units that were just to be installed on-site. Moreover, it was
executed quite well that too with out and single mishap during
construction. There is quality assurance for that project and it has been a
great success.
69
10. What do you think can promote this technology of Off-Site Construction
in India?
Ans: Creating awareness of this particular technology and making them
realize the benefits of this technology. Giving them examples of the live
projects, making them visit the actual constructed sites using this
technology, advertisement, showing them samples, conducting interviews
with people who already use this technology, etc. When there is
contribution from both the government and the private sector for the
uptake of this technology, there will be a huge promotion and acceptance
of this technology. By presenting an advantage model of this technology in
front of the people. Making people realize the speed of construction by
actually letting them about the start of project and then ask them to visit
the project at the end. So they actually know about its advantages.
11. What is the buyer’s attitude towards this technology of Off-Site

Construction?
Ans: Because of lack of awareness of this technology, there is always a
doubt in buyers mind about the quality and safety of this technology. About
how durable is it going to be, the life of such structures, etc. all is doubted
till the time they actually get to see any live examples of this.
12. Any Recommendations?

Ans: Once people start using this technology for various other purposes
where residence safety is not a concern, it can slowly be transferred to
housing projects where people can actually see the lives examples of this.
And this is not difficult at all. Basically, awareness and education is what
you need to promote this technology. There is a need of government’s
promotion of affordable housing and off-site construction with the help of
political backup. This will increase the number of users of these concepts
and also the participants investing in them. Moreover, the government
should provide some incentives for the private sector involvement in
affordable housing projects and the social aspect of the private sector
should be challenged, as the social aspect is followed only in the field of
medication. Today, even housing is a need of an individual, even that
70
needs to be fulfilled. There is a lot of scope for both these concepts in
India in the near future. Also, the government is taking steps towards it.
Moreover, these days the traditional construction techniques are proving to
be a failure.
71
in India?
Ans: I personally feel that government cannot allot houses to the needy
people, free of cost, as this will lead to some another problems also will
add additional burden on budget. It becomes difficult for the government to
solely take the responsibility of building such projects. Moreover, the
private builders don’t want to invest in these types of projects, as they
want to make profit and not welfare, unlike the government.
Ans: Yes obviously. Provided it is executed well and there are no flaws in
the management system.

Ans: There is need of shelter for Lakhs of peoples in India. There is no role
of any authorized agency to take care of this need. Government also has
its other issues to take care of. One cannot reply totally on Government
only. Thus, there is gap in demand and supply. If any independent
developer starts such type of affordable housing project, a needy person
can think about purchasing such low cost house within his financial
capacity.

Ans: There is need of shelter for Lakhs of people in India. There is no role
of any authorized agency to take care of this need. Government also has
its other issues to take care of. One cannot reply totally on Government
only. If any independent developer starts such type of affordable housing
project, a needy person can think about purchasing such low cost house
within his financial capacity. As per Traditional Building Practice the low
72
cost housing project is not possible but if option of off-site construction can
help to achieve this shortage, can be considered.

Ans: The only reason why the private developers are hesitant in getting
into these kinds of projects is that they think the government should take
initiatives in this matter. But these days, the government is actually taking
initiatives in the favour of these private developers to get them involved in
these types of projects. The government is encouraging the public private
partnerships, so the amount of risk is shared between the private sector
and the government and also the investment burden is shared.
Ans: Using latest techniques of production can do Most of the production.
Mechanization can be done to reduce time & increase economy by less
wastage/reutilization of resources. Now days we are facing problem of
skilled manpower. Less material inventory will reduce the blockage of the
funds. Once the prefab materials are received at site with the help of
machines & less manpower, within short time we can achieve more
progress. Due to off-site production of building elements, time can be
saved, mistakes will be less, and cost of repairing will be less if proper is
being taken while designing & production. Most of the civil engineering
projects are suffered financial losses on the basis of time overrun, can be
avoided.

73
Ans: 1. Failure of accepting change from traditional construction to off-site
construction practise.
2. Education & awareness.
3. Daring to invest & start a sample project, to observe the responses
from prospective customers.
4. Detailed study of the economic aspects of the business.
5. There is requirement of formation of authorized body/organization
to do follow up & create awareness. To study the risk factors
involved & solution/conclusions to avoid economic losses.
6. Special fund provisions.
7. Private sector also can take calculative risks by starting a
sample/trial project.

Ans: In my opinion overcoming the barriers, as stated in the earlier
questions can be very well done if the government takes the initiative to
do so. Starting from creating awareness about the technology of Off-
Site construction, if the government sets up a body that completely
looks into these issues, will be a great step I achieving these barriers.
There should be provision of special funds from the government,
educating the labour to adopt these techniques, etc.

being used (Level of Uptake) in the Indian Construction Industry
and why?
Ans: The adoption of Off-Site Construction and its uptake in India has
been steady since long. The use of this technology is not necessarily in
the field of housing but also for commercial and industrial purposes.
The demand for this technology in the housing sector is still a little
scanty, reasons for which can be the attitude of the people towards this
technology.
10. What do you think can promote this technology of Off-Site

Construction in India?
74
Ans: I think, changing people’s attitude towards this technology,
preparing them to accept the change in using the newer technologies
of construction, are a few steps that can be taken to promote this
technology. Moreover, making the builder and the consumer realize the
advantages of this technology is a greater concern. As the private
sector does business to make money and they are of the thought that it
is hard to make money out of this technology. It is necessary to make
them realize that making money out of this easier in the long-term.
11. What is the buyer’s attitude towards this technology?

Ans: Because of lack of knowledge of this technology, the buyer is
unsure of the quality of components from this technique. They are
willing to take it for the commercial and industrial buildings but are
hesitant about accepting it for housing.

Ans: Affordable Housing is a necessity in India to overcome the
shortage of housing for poor. More of these projects should come up in
the near future and the rate of production of these houses should be
considerable to meet the shortage. Moreover, Efforts should be made
to promote this technology as it has wider scope in India in the near
future. People are accepting this technology at a quite steady rate. No
matter it is much concentrated in the commercial and industrial sector
as of now, but as there is awareness of this technology, people won’t
hesitate to accept this for housing as well. Educating labour and
improving the infrastructure guidelines is necessary.
75
in India?
Ans: Due to the migration of people from rural to urban areas for handful
earnings, there is a lot of urbanization issue and the cities are getting over-
crowded leading to acute shortage of land and housing. Land has become
a very important issue. The land prices are going higher and higher.
Moreover, it has become very difficult to get land at affordable prices. In
urban areas, almost 70% of the housing cost consists of the land cost!
Ans: Obviously. When the government comes up with certain plans, it has
some motives to be accomplished.

Ans: Due to certain reasons it becomes difficult to deliver houses at
affordable rates. Like for eg. Even if the government introduces various
mass housing schemes to uplift the poor, the norms for Floor Surface
Index (FSI) in India are still very stringent. Also, there is scarcity of urban
land and the rates are relatively higher. So due to lower FSI and scarcity of
affordable land, it becomes difficult to deliver houses at affordable rates.
Moreover, there is heavy taxation burden in urban areas such as, stamp
duty, Service tax, VAT etc.… making it difficult for the developers to
participate in delivering these schemes, as they have to bear a heavy
premium for the affordable housing projects.

Ans: Till date, various affordable housing projects have been taken up in
India. These projects built houses up to 24m 2. Many of these projects
executed have opted for the Alu-form technology. Alu-form is a
76
technology, which is quite different from the prefabrication. It involves on-
site construction. But, my personal opinion is that even though Off-Site
Construction has various benefits, it will be suitable for affordable housing
but as for Indian context, there is no economical feasibility of this
technology. The cost required for the setup i.e. the initial investment is
quite high and requires skilled labour for its execution. Rest all the
advantages of these two technologies are similar, such as reduction in
time, reduction in labour, reduction in cost due to the repeated designs,
sustainability, etc.

Ans: There is absolutely no consistency from the government in
formulating initiatives in favour of private developer involvement in
government projects. They just pass one order in favour of welfare and are
not willing to reduce the taxes, don’t provide services like uninterrupted
power supply, infrastructure, etc. Moreover, there is no industrial status for
construction business in India. Government is very conservative in
sanctioning loan to the private builders. These are the reasons why no
developer is confident on investing such amount in this technology,
considering it as an acute possibility of risk (A developer expects services
from the government such as electricity, water, drainage etc. … and when
they are not fulfilled according to the requirement, he/she is at risk on
investing so much in bringing in the technology from foreign countries and
starts a project). Because he/she do not produce these services at their
own expense and responsibility. That is the responsibility of the public
body/government. Overcoming all these shortcomings will motivate the
private developer participation in these projects.
77
Ans: As described earlier, few advantages of Off-Site Construction and
Alu-form technology go hand in hand. Overall cost is saved to a greater
extent when repeated numbers of designs are manufactured. Moreover,
labour is eliminated to a greater extent as on-site activities are shifted for
manufacturing in the factories. Sustainability is achieved with reduction in
on-site waste. There is a lot of flexibility of activities that are carried out on-
site as most of the components are built Off-Site. Also health and safety
are the majorly impacted. On a traditional construction project, all the
activities are carried out on the site so there are ample chances of deadly
encounters leading to mishaps on-site, resulting in unsafe working
conditions. With the adoption of Off-Site Construction, lot of these on-site
mishaps can be prevented.

Ans: Very high initial cost of setting up this technology. Finances required
erecting the components and the amount invested in technology, are quite
higher. People are not willing to spend that much of amount on this
technology, as they think that it might prove to be a risk, especially the
builder fraternity. Compared to conventional methods, this method is more
than twice as much costly. To adopt and deliver the finished product on-
site, skilled labour is required. There is an acute shortage of skilled labour
in India, in-spite of huge population of the construction industry. Indians
are not willing to make any effort and work in India, rather prefer the
developed nations as their workplace. The psychology of the end
users/buyers of the products and services in India is a major problem.
They are not willing to accept any major change. No matter you carry out
the work and deliver the project with utmost care and precision i.e.
efficiently and effectively, the traditional mind-set of the people will compel
them to doubt the technology resulting in non-acceptance of the
technology. Poor condition of roads is a barrier for its adoption. The
manufactured components during the transit get damaged due to poor
78
conditions of roads in India. Moreover, the roads standards (Widths) make
it difficult to change the dimensions of the manufactured components, as
they cannot be transported. The designs opted for this technology are the
same repeated ones and cannot be amended while or after erecting the
structure. Also, no initiatives been taken by the government in order to
promote this technology (Provision of funds). Government is very
conservative in sanctioning loan to private builders after various economic
downfalls observed in various others nations.

Ans: Firstly, it is very important to address the issue of complete
technology transfer in India, which is leading to increments in the initial
costs. Once all the technology is brought in India, there is a possibility of
saving lot a initial setting up cost. Moreover, the government is
discouraging the flow of currency out of India, which might be considered
as a hindrance to the transfer of technology. Educating the labour is a very
important issue. The labour should be educated by showing them videos
and presentations in order to educate them to use this technology. The
government should take measures to provide financial aids to the
developers who are willing to invest in this technology. Also, it is the
responsibility of the government to provide un-interrupted supply of
services such as electricity, water, etc. Awareness among the public
should be created so that they will accept the technology, as the end user
is the one who buys this construction.

why?
Ans: As mentioned earlier, Alu-form is a very popular technology used for
construction activities in India. Now, the question about Off-Site
Construction uptake, there have been projects in India, where various
parts of the building have been manufactured off-site and then assembled
on-site but there’s no such example where there is complete off-site
construction used in India. Recently, for the slum rehabilitation in Mumbai,
79
there were temporary houses provided by our company, but these opted
the partial way of prefabrication and not the complete. it proved to be quite
faster and cheaper to be constructed, which helped them in evacuating the
slum dwellings at the earliest, for its rehabilitation
in India?
Ans: Most importantly, there is need of the government to take initiatives in
order to promote this technology. The government should actually
implement the schemes it introduces instead of just passing them.
Because this technology is not widely used in India, awareness should be
created among the users and the buyers and they should be told about the
ample advantages of this technology.

Ans: The psychology of the end users/buyers of the products and services
in India is a major problem. They are not willing to accept any major
change. No matter you carry out the work and deliver the project with
utmost care and precision i.e. efficiently and effectively, the traditional
mind-set of the people will compel them to doubt the technology resulting
in non-acceptance of the technology.

Ans: This technology has a limited scope in India. Looking at the
conditions in India, such as poverty, improper governance, poor
infrastructure in India, as for now there no scope for further improvement
of this technology. For instance, the investors should invest in the partial
prefab, in order to grab the advantages of this technology.
80
in India?
Ans: Basically there is overcrowding of the cities because of the
tremendous rate of urbanization. The bigger cities and the trade centres
are getting saturated because of the inward migration of the bulk of
population. Thus, due to the lack of availability of land for these people
migrating in the cities, there is a huge shortage of housing.
2. Do you think the government’s idea of Mass Housing will suffice the
Ans: Yes. I support this statement. There are a number of initiatives that
the government has come up with, for the fulfilment of the housing
demand of a wide range of population like JNNURM. These initiatives by
the government of India look forward to uplift the poor and their housing
demand, where basically the government targets the cities with higher
population of the migrants and those living in the slums and sanction mass
housing projects under the tenders by the central government.

Ans: There are certain reasons that justify this statement. Firstly, as I said
bulk of population is migrating to the city areas leading to over population.
Secondly, land is not available readily because of its scarcity. Thirdly, even
if there availability of land, it is not at affordable rates. Thus, there is a
huge demand and supply gap.

Ans: Off-Site Construction is a relatively superior technology for
construction. I think the speed of construction i.e. it is quite faster as
compared to the traditional building practice and because of this there is a
81
possibility of bridging the gap of housing demand and supply. Lower
consumption of materials. Moreover, this technology is cheaper in long-
term, hence, assisting affordable housing.

Ans: The government should make sure that they promote the involvement
of these developers with formulating certain initiatives. The government
imposes high taxes on these products and so the developers, instead of
getting into these projects, prefer the non-affordable ones.
Ans: Off-Site Construction has numerous benefits over the traditional
building practice. Starting from the introduction of a relatively newer
technology to the Indian construction market, this technology is will bring in
newer machineries in line with the international market, which will lead to
less dependence on these markets for the uptake of technology.
Construction with the use of Off-Site Construction is quite faster as
numbers of building components are manufactured offsite and just have to
be assembled on site, which hardly takes any time. It is cheaper in long-
term use, no doubt it is a bit expensive initially, but with the reduction in
labour and various other reasons, this technology proves to be quite
cheaper. As mentioned above, huge elimination of labour resulting in cost
reduction. Moreover, due to the reduction in waste, sustainability issues
are eliminated to a greater extent.

82
Ans: You have framed a very important question i.e. barriers to its
implementation. No matters there are various advantages of this
technology but when it comes to the practical implementation of this
technology, there are a number of barriers that refrain its uptake.
Availability of skilled manpower is a very strong reason. India does not
have ample skilled labour for execution and for the successful uptake of
this technology. The technology itself is not costlier but the taxes imposed
on the products, by the government are quite higher, thus making it an
expensive technology. People are very used to the traditional building
practice. So they are not ready to accept this technology saying that it is a
very inferior technology and the quality of construction cannot be
compared to that of Off-Site Construction. Moreover, road network is a big
issue in India. Poor quality of infrastructure hinders the transportation of
manufactured products on-site. Also, if the manufacturing units are far
from the project site, it adds up to the project cost to a very greater extent.

Ans: Measures can be taken to educate the working class in this industry
i.e. educating labour. Government should take measures to reduce the
high taxes on the manufactured products of construction. Spreading the
awareness of this technology and making the customer realize the
advantages of this technology. Also, improving the quality of infrastructure
and bringing up newer and more plants of Off-Site manufacturing can
solve the problem.

why?
Ans: This technology is not that widely accepted in India and if compared
to China, the uptake is quite low in India. The most important reason for
this is the lack of awareness of this technology in India. Moreover,
wherever this technology is adopted in India, it is mostly in the form of
panelised construction, as there is no adequate machinery required for
this. So there is no question of complete Off-Site Manufacturing.
83
Moreover, the builder lobby in India is very much strong and oriented
towards the traditional building practice.
in India?
Ans: For now, I think it is the government who can do this job very well.
The government has to create awareness of this technology and formulate
initiatives in favour of Off-Site Construction, thus promoting it.

Ans: The buyer is hesitant of completely relying on this technology and
considers it as inferior to the traditional construction.

Ans: This technology is not widely accepted in India for now. But it has a
bright future in India, if appropriate efforts are taken in order to create
awareness of this technology. The uncontrolled migration from rural to
urban areas should be controlled and the government in concern of this
issue should implement laws.
84
in India?
Ans: Although India is a very big country with huge population; most of the
people living in India are poor. These people cannot afford to buy houses
due to their higher prices. So basically, there is shortfall in the production
of houses at affordable rates. Schemes from government should come up
for providing housing. Lack of initiatives from the government is creating a
shortage of housing. Even though there are such schemes from the side of
the government, there is a lot of corruption, which makes it difficult for
implementation.
Ans: Yes. The government should come with such mass housing projects,
provided they are available at lower prices, so that the poor can buy them
easily.

Ans: First and foremost, the government when comes up with such type of
projects, there is a lot of corruption in the system, which makes it difficult
to implement these schemes for the poor. There is no seriousness towards
this issue. This causes improper execution of projects leading to huge
delays in delivering them. I am of the opinion that, until and unless the
issue of corruption isn’t eliminated, implementing these types of schemes
isn’t going to be possible effectively.

Ans: Because of the various benefits it offers leading to economical
construction. Also, most importantly ample of time is expected to save as
85
the main construction is done in the factories and just assembling is the
on-site work, so it becomes easier to deliver the houses at a faster rate in
order to meet the rate of production of these houses. Moreover, there is a
possibility of materials getting stolen on-site, so issues like can be met,
thus resulting in economy of project. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the
private sector participation will be able to make lot of money by using this
technology for these types of projects.

Ans: As the private sector is unaware of the ample benefits provided by
this technology and also according to them, low profit margin are the main
reasons why there is no active participation from this sector. Also, they
believe that there is more work in these types of projects.
Ans: Off-Site Construction offers ample benefits, speed of construction
and cost savings being the major, as lot of cost is saved in the materials
because of less consumption and also through the economical designs. It
basically simplifies the whole construction process and makes it possible
to work on the buildings as a whole unit. Adoption of this technology
reduces the length of supply chain thus reducing the complications and
difficulties. Even though, training is required for the labour, it is quite easier
to train them as most of the processes are standard and need not much to
understand. Sustainability is a very important factor that achieved because
reduction in waste and reduction in onsite activities. Moreover, due to
standardization, there is repetition of activities thus bringing more precision
in work and economy. Also, there is flexibility of materials according to the
86
suitability, which further affects the cost of production. Health and safety is
also evident.

Ans: The builder lobby tries to avoid extensive use of steel materials.
There is a shortage of skilled labour in India in order to fabricate and erect
these structures. But this is ok, as their training is not that hard to execute.
The inflexibility of design does not give options to provide a variety of
designs to the customer, or make designs according to the customers’
needs. Moreover, there is limited flexibility for this process, as all the
designs should be ready before hand I order to execute. And all these
design need to be verified before passing it on to the production
department as it is difficult to make changes at later stages. The biggest
problem in India is the instability of currency, which may lead more
expenses on importing certain parts from overseas, affecting the cost of
construction. Logistics is also a very important issue that needs to be
addressed. The roads are very poor in India, so there is a question of safe
delivery of manufactured components on-site.

Ans: Training of the unskilled labour, creating awareness of this
technology is necessary. A market study of customer’s requirement can be
done, so that the benefits from opting this technique can be maximized.
Government should make a contribution by developing the infrastructure.

why?
Ans: US, UK, China are way ahead of India and that they have made use
of this technology in almost every type of construction. These countries
have opted prefabrication for housing in the form of modularization the
uptake was very low initially but after 2002, various projects came up that
used this technology under the name of ‘Pre-Engineered Buildings’. They
87
manufactured these buildings for the industrial purpose but these days it is
slowly accepted for the housing as well. Basically it is speeding up now.
in India?
Ans: Creating awareness by introducing special subjects in technical
institutes in India is an innovative idea in promoting this technology
because of its ample benefits it will offer India in the near future. The
government should provide special funds in this concern.
11. What is the buyer’s attitude towards this technology of Off-Site

Construction?
Ans: For the people who are unaware of this technology, there is always a
fear in their mind whether this technology will last for long or not.

Ans: Arrangement of seminars and webinars in certain pockets and
providing certain tax benefits will surely promote the technology. Learn
from international best practises. Government should setup an authority
that is dedicated completely to housing issues. They need to revisit
building guidelines and modify them. Heavy taxation should be taken off
from the sector of housing. And this authority should make sure that the
developers are provided with adequate funds that are willing to invest in
projects for affordable mass housing. For the uptake of OSC, the
government should form mergers with the companies who already practice
this technology, so that this technology can be transferred to housing.
88

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The University of Salford Manchester

School of Built Environment

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the

APPLICATION OF OFF-SITE CONSTRUCTION

TEJAS SANJAY JADHAV

In this epoch of India’s economic growth, where there is remarkable

Keywords: Affordable housing, off-site construction, gaps in affordable

Being a student of Masters of Science in Construction Management at the

Date: 20th September 2013

Firstly, I am truly grateful to the Almighty for building this confidence in me to

I am thankful to my parents and my whole family who backed me during the

CIDB – Construction Industry Development Board

The rapid urbanisation during the period of India’s post independence,

Ogden (n.d.) noticed that use of traditional methods of construction has

1.2 Purpose of Research

1.3 Dissertation Aim

1. To understand and overview the situation of urban housing in India.

1.5 Dissertation Roadmap

A strategic roadmap is developed and adopted to successfully carry out this

The literature review focuses on areas related to housing situation in India

2.1 State of Housing in India

Today, India is recognised as the second largest populated country in the

Graph 1: Percentage increase in Urbanisation

According to the statistics provided by the Planning commission, there was a

2.2 Affordable Housing

Affordability is a relative and generic concept. It has different meanings that

As emphasised by the Indian Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty

Various other definitions of affordable housing are –

‘Bridging the Urban Housing Shortage in India’ a report by KPMG (2012)

<INR 1.5 Lakhs EMI to monthly

Table 1: Definition of Affordable Housing (KPMG)

The Indian Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation defined

Size EMI or Rent

 300 ft2 min super

 500 ft2 min super

 600 – 1,200 ft2 of

Table 2: Definition of Affordable Housing (MHUPA)

Only by ‘increasing’ the supply of affordable housing, a poor person’s housing

Yet, the development in affordable housing remains to be a defiant plan for

2.4 Off-Site Construction for Affordable Housing

According to the report submitted by KPMG (2012), it can be seen that

The RICS (2010) highlights significance of innovative construction

The knowledge of improving the construction industry’s performance by

2.5.1 Defining Off-Site Construction

As stated by Gibb and Pendlebury (2005), OSC is considered as a technique

Although, Tam et al (2007) highlighted the unsatisfactory outputs of this

1. Panelised System: Basically consists of producing building panels in

2. Volumetric System: Consists off-site manufacturing of complete

Figure 4: Volumetric Blocks

3. Non-Volumetric System: Consists manufacturing of pre-assembly units,

Figure 5: Bridge Frame

Figure 6: Modular Building at New York City, United States

5. Hybrid System: This type of construction is also known as semi-

Repeated manufacturing of similar type of components of a structure for

OSC permits prototype testing, which particularly is crucial for buildings

As a matter of fact, on smaller construction sites, when these on-site activities

2.5.3 Challenges of Off-Site Construction

There are a lot of challenges and barriers to the successful implementation of