‘Manpower, material shortage may plague construction sector’

Chennai: In the next five to seven years, the construction industry will have infrastructure projects worth around $500 billion in India.

However, the sector will be plagued with shortage of men, material, machinery, management and money (five Ms), according to Mr K.V. Rangaswami, President (Construction) and Member, Board – Larsen & Toubro.

Going by the past, the $500-billion investment may not happen. However, even 50 per cent of it will translate into projects worth $60-70 billion a year.

Today, the combined business done by all the construction companies in India was only $20 billion.

Companies need to scale up four to five times to meet the massive infrastructure projects to take place in the next 5-6 years, he said at the 29th All India PR conference.

Mr Rangaswami said despite the shortage of ‘five Ms,’ India will overcome the challenge and become a developed country by 2020.

“I am optimistic,” he said, inaugurating the conference on PR and Infrastructure Development organised by the Public Relations Society of India.

Emphasis on power

According to Mr Partha S. Ghosh, Founder Director, Partha S. Ghosh Associates, while constructing large infrastructure projects like malls and airports in India, there is no emphasis on electricity, which will be a critical sector for the country.

If India needs to achieve even 20 per cent per capita consumption of the UK, the country needs to add in the next 5-6 years the same level of capacity as was done in the last 100 years.

India can save Rs 2,400 crore by increasing the utilisation and cutting down of transmission and distribution losses, he added.