Building with Rapidwall in India

“It is just not possible to continue to build with traditional materials and achieve sustainable development.”

In India the projected population by 2026 will be 1,400 million.

By 2015, just six years away, it is estimated that the housing shortage will top 90 million.

In order to overcome this huge housing shortage is an urgent need for alternative building materials.

Building materials that:

  • Are energy efficient
  • Have little or no CO2 emissions
  • Are strong & durable
  • Can be constructed quickly
  • Are resistant to natural disasters like earthquakes, cyclones and fire
  • Can be produced at a cost to meet needs of masses and
  • Have the ability to be recycled

Sustainable development also means we need to have an eye on environmental considerations.

Conventional walling materials such as fired clay bricks, solid and hollow concrete blocks, tilt-up concrete panels; timber frame, external steel cladding and steel frames have a detrimental effect on the environment.  They are high energy users; deplete valuable agricultural land, cause environmental pollution, deplete forests and water and cause high CO2 emissions.

Even though these conventional materials will be around for a very long time there are now serious questions being asked by every government about the impact these products have on the environment and on climate change.

And it’s not a question of whether we personally believe in climate change or not; most people do agree that reducing carbon emissions will have a beneficial effect on the environment.

In India, clay brick production accounts for 27% of total national energy consumption.

For every million bricks produced 0.8 of a hectare of agricultural land is destroyed; 5.6 megawatts of energy is used and 310 tonnes of CO2 is emitted. Scarce water resources and sands and minerals are depleted and the atmosphere is polluted.

Within just a few years cement production in India has increased from 100 million tonnes per year to the current level of 160 million tonnes and steel production from 30 million to 60 million tonnes.

Presently 200 billion bricks are produced annually and demand is growing exponentially.

What are the alternatives?

Annual investment in housing in India will run at between US$28 and US$38 billion and the cost of building methods is increasing exponentially each year.

With traditional building materials degrading the landscape and adding significantly to CO2 emissions, building from environmentally friendly Rapidwall has become even more attractive.

India produces significant amounts of fertilizer for worldwide use but in doing so creates phospho-gypsum as a by-product in the order of millions of tonnes annually. Presently there is 31 million tonnes of excess phospho gypsum stockpiled and this is added to annually by 2.5 million tonnes.

By utilising Rapid Building Systems Rapidflow calcination plant the phospho gypsum can be turned into plaster and subsequently into Rapidwall, thereby cleaning up the environment.

Rashtriya Chemicals Fertilizer (RCF) in Mumbai and India’s oldest fertilizer company, Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) in Cochin, are both in the process of building new plants to turn their waste phospho gypsum into Rapidwall homes and this shows great foresight and planning.

This stockpiled Gyspum is enough to build 5 million 30m2 Rapidwall homes.

By comparison to traditional building materials, Rapidwall is a low energy user, has little CO2 emission, helps to clean up the environment, is 100% recyclable and is cheaper to produce.

Contact in India
Mr P. K. Gopinathan
Chief - Rapidwall Technologies Promotion for SW Asia & Director, Rapidwall Building Systems India Pvt Ltd
Mobile: +91 98 4003 2638
Email:
p_india_building_in_003Rapidwall plant - Mumbai.
p_india_building_in_002Rapidwall house Under Construction.
p_india_building_in_004Rapidwall house completed.