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Mumbai: In its fastest time ever, the state-run City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) in Navi Mumbai has erected a 12-storey, 96-apartment tenement building in a record 96 days at the rate of one day per apartment.

The building was made using ‘pre-cast’ technology, in which elements of the building’s superstructure were cast in a nearby factory using reusable moulds. The project was built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’s Mass Housing Scheme, under which several tenements across Navi Mumbai are being built for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Lower Income Groups (LIG).

The individual elements -- walls, beams, columns, slabs, staircases etc. -- were then transported to the construction site near Bamandongri Railway Station and lifted into place, unlike the ‘cast in place’ method where concrete is batched on site and then used to cast the walls and slabs of the building in a steel formwork.

For the project in question, a total of 1,985 precast elements of the superstructure were assembled over a built-up area of 64,000 sq. ft. Pre-cast concrete elements are standardised and easily reproducible, have a smaller environmental footprint, increase time efficiency, reduce wastage of raw material and result in less cluttered and safer construction sites.

“The project was flagged on April 4 and finished on July 9, not just in fabricating the superstructure but also all the wiring, mechanical and electrical fittings. It meets the RERA norms of timely completion of projects. We made a concerted effort to finish the building under our ‘Mission 96’ campaign, which we hope to reproduce with other mass housing projects in the future,” said CIDCO spokesperson Priya Ratambe.

“Mission 96 has showcased that precast technology is capable of building superior quality structures in factory-controlled environments, reducing floor cycle time, and can also mitigate lower manpower availability,” said Sanjay Mukherjee, managing director, CIDCO.

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