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MARCH-APRIL 2014
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INTERNATIONAL
Partha Basistha reports on the
growing requirements for modern
scaffolding solutions in India.
G
rowing mechanisation
of the construction
industry in India is
driving demand for scaffolding
solutions. In addition, a dearth
of skilled construction workers
and increased requirements for
safety, compounded by shortage
of conventional wooden and
bamboo based scaffolding
solutions, are major reasons for an
increased requirement for modern
iron scaffolding solutions.
The newer solutions have a
longer life and can be reused at
various sites, resulting in cost
savings for the Indian contractors
as they face increasing pressure on
margins.
Almost all the construction
sectors in India are witnessing
increasing usage of modern
scaffolding solutions. Formwork
is being used for the increasing
amount of elevated concrete
superstructures and the setting of
piers in metro railway projects.
Setting of chimneys and
cooling towers in thermal power
plants and cement factories
are the other usage areas.
Maintenance of steel, power,
cement plants, crude oil refineries
reinforced structure is composed
of 8 tonnes of steel and 22 tonnes
of concrete.
Three scaffolding towers are
also supporting 8 m cross beam
sections in the station project.
Weight of some cross beam
section is 50 tonnes.
Mr Mishra says, “The biggest
advantage of modern scaffolding
solutions with varied load bearing
capacities is that they can be
set and dissembled in a short
amount of time, as most of the
EPC jobs in India now have tight
completion schedules.They can
be easily moved from between
various job sites. Furthermore,
the scaffolding sections are
insulated to avoid damage and
bending despite being frequently
run over by mobile equipment,
not unnatural in Indian working
sites.”
New trends
With newer design and enhanced
mechanisation of construction
of industrial, commercial and
residential projects in India
compared to couple of years
ago, there is an ever growing
requirement of updated
scaffolding solutions.
Due to extensive usage of
concrete pumps, scaffolding
solutions are now required by
Indian contractors that can
support varied loads of fabricated
steel reinforced structure and
and other industrial infrastructure
projects are other emerging areas
of applications for scaffolding.
Further, a growing number of
residential and commercial high
rise constructions in metropolitan
cities are also seeing major usage
of scaffolding solutions.
Delhi Metro Railway is
extensively using modern
scaffolding for setting up its
elevated concrete superstructure
for stations and piers to support
precast concrete sections in its
third phase expansion.
According to Mr B Mishra,
senior site engineer from Indian
engineering procurement and
commissioning construction
company Larsen& Toubro, which
is constructing phase three of
Shakurpur Metro station in
Delhi, “We have been assembling
scaffolding towers between 12
m, 13m and 22 m.The highest
scaffolding tower assembled was
26 m for setting up piers during
our phase-2 expansion.”
Scaffolding towers are being
used at Shakurpur metro station
to support 16 m main beam
reinforced structure of 1.2 m
width weighing 30 tonnes.The
Forming
the future
SCAFFOLDING INTERNATIONAL
