Ready Mix Concrete and the challenges it faces

Ready Mix Concrete is becoming quite popular in India and is being used in various civil constructions and Virtue Industries shares the numerous advantages of using Ready Mix Concrete in the construction processes. 

The advantages and limitations of using Ready Mix Concrete

Ready Mix Concrete uses modern technology in contrast to the traditional mixing of concrete at site. The users of Ready Mix Concrete may choose to purchase concrete from reliable and certified Ready Mix Concrete producers to ensure the predictable quality of concrete and durable construction. The use of mechanization in transportation (transit mixers) and placement (concrete pumps) of concrete ensures that the casting of foundations and slabs is finished in the much lesser time leading to timely completion of projects. Early completion of buildings leads to major commercial gains not only in terms of reduction in construction costs but also in rentals and timely space utilization.

Virtue Concrete procurement and quality control teams routinely exercise their expertise by mapping best and competitive material sources in the area and leverage information technology to deliver superior quality of concrete performance at reasonably optimized costs. One of the limitations Ready Mix Concrete as a technology poses is its inability to deliver smaller quantities for ancillary applications because typically the concrete is delivered using transit mixers of about 6 cubic meters capacity.

Is Ready Mix Concrete an economical alternative? 

Ready Mix Concrete enables fast, good quality and reliable construction. Wastages and pilferages at sites are eliminated. Time taken in finishing the day concreting is reduced by 40 to 70 percent. Labour is reduced at the site. Ready Mix Concrete creates an ecosystem for site handling to become more convenient, eco-friendly and efficient. The cost comparisons lead to skewed results when the material cost of site concrete is directly compared with the delivered price of Ready Mix Concrete. However, after incorporating the economies achieved from the material, labor and time savings as well as a reduction in failures and corrective actions, it is easy to conclude that Ready Mix Concrete provides an economically viable alternative to all construction requirements. Apart from the short-term economics, buildings and infrastructure costs are substantially reduced when a superior and durable Ready Mix Concrete is used to reduce the overall lifecycle cost of construction. It should also be appreciated that the production of concrete needs to be done reliably and sustainably. This can be done when production facilities are equipped with a certified environment, health, and safety-related controls. The use of concrete from unorganized plants without QCI or BIS certification may appear cheaper but will be detrimental to the construction industry.

How can Ready Mix Concrete help the construction industry in ensuring sustainable development? 

Ready Mix Concrete incorporates beneficiation of industrial by-products like fly ash and slag for use in concrete for higher durability, achieving a significant reduction in cement consumption. Ready Mix Concrete is also instrumental in reducing the depletion of river sand and other precious natural resources. By purchasing concrete instead of sand and aggregates directly, sites can be kept relatively pollution-free. Products like structural lightweight concrete and fire-safe concrete available through Ready Mix Concrete help the buildings reduce the energy costs and well as fire resistance of the buildings.

How is Ready Mix Concrete aligned to the needs of the housing sector in upcoming decades?

The housing sector requires a substantially large number of dwellings to be constructed within a short span of more than a decade. Such a requirement mandates the construction cycle to be reduced drastically. Many precast related technologies are now available for this to be effectively executed. Use of preformed aluminum formwork, flowable concrete, early strength concrete, heat curing, etc. can be combined judiciously to ensure fast track construction. UltraTech Concrete has been able to demonstrate in live projects the efficacy of such systems by the usage of indigenously designed RMD technology and boxed precast methodology.

What are the challenges faced by the Ready Mix Concrete industry that require support from the government and various authorities?

Very often highly stringent pollution norms are insisted upon Ready Mix Concrete plants by certain municipal authorities, in many cases more than construction sites itself. However, it needs to be considered that the use of Ready Mix Concrete reduces traffic congestion and dust pollution created within randomly within many urban locations due to random plying of construction materials across the city. As a result, it would be beneficial for the city environment to provide SOPs and easier permissions to environmentally certified Ready Mix Concrete plants within planned zones of the city. The users of Ready Mix Concrete should also insist on using concrete from environmentally conscious, QCI certified plants with superior quality management systems. Such steps would strengthen the organized sector within the Ready Mix Concrete industry in serving the construction scenario in achieving the overall growth objectives of the country. Standardization bodies and government institutions are increasingly mandating the use of concrete from only certified plants and companies. We strongly support this move for the overall development of safe and sustainable construction.