Dated - 1st Nov.'97

To,
Mrs. Kiran Aggarwal,
I.A.S., Secretary,
Urban Development, Ministry of Urban Affairs & Employment,
Nirman Bhavan,
New Delhi.

SUBJECT: - Review of the Building Centre Programme and the Proposed Direction.

Madam,
I am informed that you are taking a considerable amount of interest in the Building Centre Programme and also reviewing the areas of success and failures. I, therefore, take this opportunity to give you an accurate overview of this programme, which to my mind is languishing owing to lack of clarity in the final objectives and the manner of achieving them. Having been at the Centre stage when this Programme was first conceived, I feel it is pertinent to point out that ground realities are not as projected by HUDCO or BMTPC. I further feel that you are somehow not entirely convinced of the "Numbers Game Reports" as are being made available to you and have therefore, asked for a Total Review of the same. In order to give you a realistic view it is necessary for me to briefly go into the History of the Building Centre Programme as was envisaged.

In the year '89 the Building Centre made it's beginning in Delhi at the behest of Shri S.K.Sharma (the then CMD, HUDCO), Shri.I. Chaudhri, (the then J.S. in the Ministry of Urban Development), Shri Manjit Singh, (the then Commissioner Slum & JJ Wing of the DDA) and myself as an Architect who had been delving in Appropriate Building Technologies for several years earlier. The Slum & JJ Wing of the DDA made available One acre of land at Sarai Kale Khan, East Nizamuddin, Delhi. With no financial assistance and a small number of projects, the Nizamuddin Building Centre became a success story in a short span of less than one year. A few of my students from the School of Architecture were involved in the construction of a few Demonstration units during their seventh semester training period for which HUDCO provided minimal finance. These demonstration units drew a lot of attention, and with the Marketing Skills of Shri S.K.Sharma, a lot of attention was drawn to the experiments done at the Nizamuddin Building Centre.

Shri I. Chaudhri furthered this effort and this led to the concept of the Building Centre Programme. The Ministry of Urban Development decided to make this a National Programme and gave an additional one-time grant of Rs. Two Lakhs. I was appointed the Chairman & Chief Consultant of this Centre. The Nizamuddin Building Centre, thus, became the Nodal Building Centre and was known as HUDCO's National Building Centre. For years this Centre became the role model for others to emulate. The Chairman of the KFW bank was so impressed with the working of the Nizamuddin Building Centre that the 10 million-DM grant in aid was first offered to this Centre. On declining this offer this Grant in Aid was routed through HUDCO, upon my suggestion, though, the same is attributed to the efforts of HUDCO. Shri S.K.Sharma, the then CMD, HUDCO will bear testimony to this fact.

In order to propagate the successful developments at the Nizamuddin Building Centre, HUDCO documented a large amount of work done at this Centre and projected the same as if done through the research efforts of HUDCO. In fact Shri S.K.Sharma, the then CMD, HUDCO made a special remark on this subject and publicly reprimanded some of the officers of HUDCO for this. As a direct result, the concept of the Building Materials Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) was conceived, with the specific mandate of Documenting the Building Materials research and the Planning Methodologies developed here. The additional rationale in setting up BMTPC was to pre-evaluate these technologies and put them out into the field for acceptability and economic analysis, after which certification was to follow, prior to acceptance in the PWD Manual. A centre for Video Documentation under the name of Habitat Communication Centre was also approved and the same had the concurrence of the KFW additionally. HSMI was to train the Project Managers and Habitat Polytech was set up to train the Grass Root workers and the Masons under the overall guidance of the Nizamuddin Building Centre. I was, therefore, asked to Chair the Habitat Polytech also. The Habitat Polytech should have become the main thrust area, but this was reduced to a meaningless NGO Training Centre and continues to languish even now. The objective of training a new cadre of people was missed and another institution called T.V.B. School of Habitat studies came into being which is a mere School of Architecture, which manufactures Architects as in any other School of Architecture.

With the retirement of Shri S.K.Sharma, the Nizamuddin Building Centre came in for a considerable amount of flak and the institutions that drew heavily on this Centre decided to abandon it rather than get embroiled in the controversies. Certain projects implemented by Nizamuddin Building Centre had problems such as the total degradation of Red Mud PVC sheets as in the case of Bharatiyam Gram. Red Mud PVC sheets as approved by the Govt. Research Centres were used to clad 15000 sq. m. of structures that were built by the Nizamuddin Building Centre, in just 45 days. Owing to their total degradation, the clients, Bharat Scouts and Guides made a hue and cry, and rightly so. When asked to go into the causes for this, BMTPC dragged their feet for several years. The same has not been evaluated to date, even though repeatedly requested for, and the manufacturers having openly stated and advertised that this technology was a failure and that they have now changed their formulation. The further open abandonment of the Nizamuddin Building Centre by HUDCO added fuel to the fire. Instead of coming to the support of Nizamuddin Building Centre, both HUDCO and the Slum & JJ Department froze all dues to Nizamuddin Building Centre, which made matters worse. It was almost as if BMTPC, HUDCO and the Slum & JJ Dept. had formulated a one-point agenda of Burying the Nizamuddin Building Centre. This objective was more or less achieved and the Nizamuddin Building Centre lay closed for nearly four years.

All this chaos led to aspersions being cast that something was totally amiss in as far as the Nizamuddin Building Centre was concerned. Rumors had it that a considerable amount of money had been siphoned out without any concrete evidence for this allegation. In 1993,the Buch Committee, set up by the Delhi Govt., was asked to look into this and Mr. M.N.Buch gave his findings and recommendations shortly thereafter. The report vanished for two years, and eventually when one managed to get a copy of the same, the contents, the findings and the recommendations revealed the reasons for the disappearance of this Report. HUDCO, the Finance Dept. of the Delhi Govt. and the DDA stood severely indicted. The Buch Committee report clearly outlines the manner of working that should be adopted for the future so that there is clarity in the working relationship of the Building Centres and other Govt. bodies. It further gives a time bound directive for resolving all issues, but unfortunately this report has remained a mere piece of paper. To date huge out-standings against HUDCO and the Slum & JJ Dept. remain unpaid.

During this period that the Nizamuddin Building Centre lay closed, I set up an Entrepreneurial Building Centre on the outskirts of Delhi in a village called Anangpur. This is now known as the Anangpur Building Centre and we have Designed and Built projects based on Appropriate Building Technologies of the value of app. 4 crores. These include a 100 bedded Hospital, a School and a Group Housing Scheme. We are now working on taking these Construction Systems into Tourism. Owing to the fact that a large number of Professionals and Students have expressed their desire to know and understand all that we are doing here we felt that it would be appropriate to Document these for large scale dissemination. We have, therefore, set up a Video Documentation called the Habitat Technology Network. Both, the Anangpur Building Centre and the Habitat Technology Network are unaided and run on a self- sustaining basis. HUDCO has not yet recognised either of these two Centres even though they are fully aware of all our achievements so far.

I would like to extend you an invitation to visit this Centre at your convenience.

The Nizamuddin Building Centre has recently been paid a compensation of Rs.1.51crores against fixed assets created at the Sarai Kale Khan premises, owing to the said site having to be acquired by the Delhi Govt. for providing a second entry to the Nizamuddin Railway Station. With an additional project of resettling 3600 families from Southern Ridge to Jaunapur, under the Supreme Court of India directive, the Nizamuddin Building Centre is once again back firmly on it's feet. The Jaunapur resettlement scheme covers every aspect of Human Settlements on a self-sustaining basis. It is expected that this would prove to be a land mark scheme and help arrive at a working policy for the Delhi Govt. The pilot units have already been built and I think the officers of Delhi Govt. would be requesting you to visit this during the course of this month, together with the Lt. Governor of Delhi who is taking a considerable amount of personal interest in this. As opposed to the availability of Rs.16Crores, the Slum & JJ Engineering Dept had budgeted a sum of Rs. 22 Crores for Infrastructure Development only and the beneficiaries would have to build their units themselves. The Nizamuddin Building Centre has proposed a cost of only Rs. 9 Crores for Infrastructure and the Balance is available for providing Skeletal Houses for the 3600 families. A similar exercise had been done earlier also in the case of Bhoomiheen Camp in 1991, which was limited to the construction aspects only. The above is a backgrounder with regard to the Nizamuddin Building Centre which gives a basic overview of the areas of success and failures. Analytically, it would be seen that there is a considerable amount of merit in the Programme as a whole, but certain areas require critical Examination now. It would be seen that most of the Building Centres are lying closed or have nothing specific to contribute by way of Development. There is inadequacy in direction for want of manpower committed to this Programme. Even the promoters of the Building Centre Programme, namely HUDCO and the BMTPC have reduced this to a numbers game. Even here the figures are a stage-managed presentation. The Building Centre programme was envisaged as a system to check the wasteful material application and introduce project management, thus cutting out a considerable amount of revenue loss, by eliminating the series of middlemen involved in the present day delivery mechanism. Unfortunately most of the Building Centres have been dovetailed into the regular PWD System or are under the overall charge of the Housing Boards, which are working within the PWD stipulated norms. There is little or no intervention sought from the Entrepreneur and the system for encouraging young professionals is non-existent. The excuse normally used is that this cadre of people is not available-A CATCH 22 SITUATION.

Owing to my having been associated with the School of Architecture New Delhi as also my continued interaction with other Schools of Architecture, I would like to make certain suggestions. I have found that there is a tremendous potential in the Students at the various Schools of Architecture but there is inadequacy of documentation, coupled with the resistance from the Faculty who does not want to be caught unawares. It is, therefore, this area that the solution must address itself and my suggestions are as follows:

I therefore would suggest the following:

1. Since there are some 80 Schools of Architecture, one should draw from the third year students and ask them to take a drop from academics for a period of one year. Only a limited number, say 5 to 10 students from the 80 schools be selected. They may be asked to join one of the Nodal Centres where there is a live project in the making and they are posted to this project for a period of one year. They are paid a stipend at par with a Junior Engineer during their one-year training. Nizamuddin Building Centre is one such Centre that could be used to start with, considering the fact that we today have four acres of land. Resource is also available and so is a very large live project, namely the Rehabilitation of 3600 families from the Southern Ridge to Jaunapur. The propagation of Technologies is primarily Compression Structures. In addition the materials are being used for their inherent qualities as related to Surface Engineering. This project covers a vast range of Materials, their manufacture, their application and other benefits such as the costs etc. Alternatives in relation to site, water supply and sewage disposal on a sustainable basis, as well as alternative methods of infrastructure as should be propagated. In other words this scheme is one of comprehensive Human Settlements and their Design. A large amount of inspiration has been drawn from Tradition in the practical manner without Romanticism. One other place where this can be taken up immediately is in Kerala with KESNIK. Subsequently various such Centres at State levels can be created.

2. When these students go back into Academics, the change would be so visible that others will endeavor to join this the next year. The Staff who is currently resistant to change will be compelled to take a fresh look at the Academic options. Students who have trained here would be given an additional certificate stating their having trained in Appropriate Technologies as applicable to Sustainable Human Settlement Planning. These students should form the core of the Building Centre Programme, in Academics as well as in the Building Centre themselves. In less than 5 years you would have a cadre who will be able to deliver the nature of housing required. This would more than justify the utilisation of the second installment of the KFW grant that HUDCO has just received.

3. HUDCO would subsequently, in about three years, route the entire Building Centre Funding through this system instead of the present manner of analysis and valuation. Thus HUDCO would become the trustee of the programme and the entire movement would get a tremendous boost. Today the Building Centre Programme has become a numbers game and even though there are more than 450 Building Centres, nothing major seems to have been achieved. Material replacement is the mainstay of several of these Centres. Sustainable development is more than just materials and must look into the issues such as the Choice of Land, the Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Systems, Planning Methodologies, Traditional Systems of Human Settlement Planning and Management and the Rationalised Delivery Systems.

AREAS THAT HUDCO AND BMTPC SHOULD LOOK INTO, IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THIS ON AN INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL.

1. A centre for documentation in the Written form as well as the Electronic media should be set up which should be run with the specific mandate of Documentation and Propagation only. The documentation must delve into Traditional Wisdom and must also explain the Rationale. This Centre must cover all developments in the Governmental Research Centre's as well as in the private sectors inclusive of the Building Centres.

2. Specific AirTime be got from Doordarshan for Airing these programs. This had been available to HUDCO in'91 and the issue should be reopened with Doordarshan.

3. Interaction be set up with all Schools of Architecture and students be made aware of all the Developments that are taking place.

4. HUDCO should move to the Governmental Agencies in each State, giving a clear directive to their borrowing agencies that 3% of all works are assigned to the Building Centres. This is based on the fact that the PWD manual provides that 3 % of their turn over be used for R&D. The work should be awarded on the basis of a Turnkey Performance Contract Basis, as contained in the recommendations in the Paranjpae Committee Report.

5. HUDCO and BMTPC work on the typical Turnkey Performance Contract agreements and make them available to all agencies.

6. HUDCPO and BMTPC should set up a Risk Fund to cover lapses that may occur in development and propagation of technologies. The Basis has already been cleared some Five to Six years ago.

The above are suggested so that a perfectly good concept of the Building Centre Programme may deliver desired results. Yet, if propagated in a piece meal manner, the results may end up being counter productive.

Regards,

ANIL LAUL

Copy to: Shri. V. Suresh, Chairman, Hudco, Hudco house, Lodhi road, New Delhi