PEB Solutions: The Future of Indian Construction Industry

The construction industry in India has witnessed an enormous growth that’s quite comparable to the development of the entire economic infrastructure of the country. The market of pre-engineered steel buildings is experiencing robust growth powered by infrastructure development and the increasing popularity of PEB systems in the industrial sector. This increasing popularity of the PEB systems is the result of various sectors such as logistics, power, automotive, and FMCG providing ample growth opportunity to the sector in India. While earlier there was a big requirement for construction of basic infrastructure, the technology that was available at that time along with the governance inculcated fascination with stone and concrete structures, signifying strength of presence and permanence.

Over the time, scalability and turnaround time have become vital for construction across macro and micro projects for corporate, private and institutional use. The much required gap has been filled by pre-engineered steel structures. Now, India has widely started accepting the erstwhile new and cost intensive concept in India with proven benefits for construction in the Indian environment. Over the last three decades the PEB industry has seen many changing trends in the Indian construction industry. There have been times when pre-engineered solutions were not much in demand, however, gradually, as time passes, people are becoming more aware and inclined towards it.

Shift of Perception

The shift of perception from traditional construction to pre-engineered steel structure is perhaps the greatest challenge for prefabricated and pre-engineered buildings in India. Though over the years the scenario has changed, but the pace has been slow and people are still not experimenting that readily. They still think that the conventional methods of construction are the cheaper and the best ones and overlook the long term benefits. However, we are hopeful that the way we have seen a significant shift of industrial construction towards the pre-engineered steel market in the past decade, in the coming future we will see infra and commercial projects shifting quickly to pre-engineered structures.

Stemming from the PEB industry, new heavy engineering and larger infrastructure projects are taking shape which are next in line for infrastructural development of the country. Projects such as airports, international terminals, ports, power plants, etc., need heavy steel structures and a different approach in comparison to PEB. A wave is likely to become a trend soon in the infrastructure division. Also, today the trend is about going green and thus the emphasis is on green building construction which seems to add to the growth of PEB in India. Several PEB manufacturers have developed high efficiency windows and insulation for roofs, walls, ceilings and floors. The use of solar panels and skylights on rooftops will meet daylight and captive power necessities, while, at the same time, lessening emissions and gaining carbon credits under clean development mechanism.

Another important aspect which works in PEB’s favour is the growing and much required push towards eco-friendly construction. Metal buildings are characteristically green products and have a far smaller impact on the environment as compared to conventional brick and mortar construction. The energy effective ways in producing steel used for these structures along with the high recycled content, help in considerably lessening greenhouse gas emissions. Also, even after demolition, these buildings don’t accumulate wastage such as asphalt shingles, concrete, brick and dust, and metal is the only by-product which is 100% recyclable.

PEB solutions are an ideal fit for large scale construction of ports, airports, warehousing sites as well as for power stations. The format of such buildings along with the required timelines and quality of construction are some of the advantages PEB solutions bring.

Sunil Srivastava is a Business Partner at New Life Steel Structures, a leading organization having expertise into the manufacturing of prefabricated steel structure.