Evaluating Special Economic Zone And Special Investment Region As Economic Growth Engines
Aditya Purohit, Neha Bansal and Vineet Shrivastava
The world Bank report (2008) highlights the significant contribution of economic zones in a country's GDP. The report highlighted that more than 80% of a nation's GDP is generated in cities. Therefore, planning and developing cities need to be based on pillars of inclusive planning, safe and resilient planning and sustainable development strategies, which in turn require intensive policy coordination, investment choices and sound economic policies. In absence of these, the longterm structural transformation in the global economy shall be decelerated by economic and financial crisis (OECD Development Centre 2010). In this paper, we study the economic models (SIR, SEZ & GIDC) of India. Though the basic concept of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in India came in mid-sixties, the economic attainment began in 1990s when the economic reforms were modified. SEZs were targeted to achieve balanced economic growth through proper location and implementation and thereby tapping of the local talent for an increased economic activity in the area. Some initiatives are also taken at the state levels like Gujarat Special Investment Region (SIR) Act-2009 for creating large size Investment Regions / Industrial areas and developing them as Global Hubs. In spite of these efforts, there were certain challenges which prohibited the anticipated benefits of SEZs and SIRs. One of them is that arable land is being used for nonagricultural purpose for promoting SEZ activities which led to the degeneration of sustainability of regions. These significant challenges and their underlying aspects contributing in success and failures have been addressed in this paper. These have been evaluated through consultation with various stakeholders like – local and national Government Authorities, Industrial Associations, Labor employees, Gram Panchayats and others. These are evaluated with special reference to Gujarat. As a further scope of research, it is understood that since the integrated benefits of different planning sectors in SEZ have a key role to play in sustainable development, they need to be researched.
Special Economic Zone, SIR, Global Economy, GDP, Gujarat Industrial Development
Corporation
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Research Articles
Application Of Gabion Wall For Closing The Face Of Ship Side Launching Jetty
C. S. Gokhale
Launching of ship is one of the most important operations in the entire ship construction process. Newly constructed ships are launched by various methods such as longitudinal launching systems, vertical launching system and side launching system. Due to space constraints and various other reasons and associated advantages; the use of side launching is becoming increasing popular. The state of Goa has larger number of small and medium shipyards. Majority of such shipyards are located along rivers near river mouth i.e. close to sea. For side launching the jetty is constructed parallel to river water line. The side launching beams are arranged transversely, i.e. at right - angles to the line of keel. For side launching jetty it is must that the face of the jetty is closed for the safety of both ship and jetty itself. Normally the face is closed by steel sheet pile wall or concrete sheet pile wall. This paper discusses design and construction of a side launching jetty on the banks of River Mandovi in state of Goa constructed for flat bottom vessels having dimensions up to 90 m x 14 m and weighing up to 2000 t. The face of jetty was closed by an innovative technique employing gabion wall.
Ship launching, Gabion wall, Side launching, Geo fabric, Jetty
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Research Articles
Promoting Sustainable And Affordable Urban Housing Projects in India : A Review Of Policies, Practices And The Way Forward
Ashish Goel
Due to the growing economy and job creation in cities, the urban population of India is rapidly increasing. A big portion of the people migrating to cities belong to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Lower Income Group (LIG) which poses a duel challenge in front of the central and respective state governments to not only provide ample number of affordable housing units for such a people but also to ensure that such large scale development of the building stock should be done in a sustainable manner incorporating the social, environment and economic concerns. This study highlights the urgency of affordable and sustainable urban housing projects in India with focus on impediments to such development. In the initial part of this study, a review of public policies, regulations and construction practices relevant to the building construction industry is carried out to understand these barriers. Lack of funds, regulatory issues, land availability, short-sighted urban planning and inappropriate project delivery methods are some of the barriers identified in the review. Based on this understanding, a project lifecycle based framework is proposed which lays a roadmap for promoting sustainable and affordable urban housing projects. The framework spells out the roles of an individual stakeholder to be performed during the different phases of the project lifecycle along with the relationship among the inputs and outputs from different stakeholders during the entire lifecycle. The framework also provides a starting point for development of a more comprehensive roadmap for a large scale development of sustainable and affordable urban housing projects with focus on incentivising private partnership in this noble cause.
Sustainability, Urban housing, Sustainable and Affordable housing, Housing shortage, India
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Research Articles
Construction Contract Claim Management
B. Ravinder , Ravi Prasad Gupta , Sameep Goenka and Shreya Bandaru
Contracting is a mechanism to execute a real / infrastructure project in the construction industry, wherein the known–unknown risks, unknown- known risks, and unknown- unknown risks, known-known risks are shared by the contracting parties to mitigate the risk burden. In this digital era, employers are unable to buy sufficient time in the preparation of refined drawings, frozen plan and accurate estimate due to various parameters. Hence, in the trial of awarding the work and executing the project, the employer finds stop-gaps. The stop-gaps may arise during the progress of project execution due to scope change, modifications in drawings, material change etc., which may lead to buy time extension / time overrun and also cost overrun. To study and analyze this phenomenon, a questionnaire have been prepared with likert's scale. Thirteen (13) factors related to time overrun and nine (9) factors related to cost overrun have been incorporated in the questionnaire and the same was circulated among the civil engineering, contracting, architectural population. We could file only twenty five respondents' responses due to the time frame limitation. The respondents' data has been tested using the Anova tool on the SPSS package. The results proved that the factors independently influenced the time and cost overrun. Delay, disruption and interference with the work lead to argument among the contracting parties. If any party found to be unhappy, the situation leads to disagreement which may be termed as conflict and dispute. Conflicts and disputes need to be settled very efficiently to overcome the challenges from the contractor's end. In turn, the employer may also challenge, which leads to non closure of the contract and it may continue till further justification from the institution of law, if approached by the contracting parties. Claims and disputes, if settled amicably through negotiation, saves time as well as the present value of money is appreciated.
Claim, Time overrun, Cost overrun, Conflicts and disputes, Causes of dispute, Methods of dispute
resolution etc.,
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Research Articles
Studies On Development Of Floating Concrete Cubes
Raja Sekhar Mamillapalli and V Srihari
The population on earth is growing rapidly but the land remains the same. Two-Third of our earth is filled with water. Numerous ideas have been executed for the exploration on water, exclusively on marine environment. Floating Airport in Japan is of this kind. In our country water bodies are being filled up for construction of buildings, which leads to water scarcity. This paper deals with the solution to the above problem, concrete and its mix design which floats on water without disturbing water and water bodies. The densities of the three concrete cubes 3 discussed in this paper are less than the density of water, which is less than 1000kg/m . These three concrete cubes are made up of three different materials. Cement, fly ash, sand, air entraining admixture are main constituents in type 1 cube. Coal is used as coarse aggregate in type 2 cube and Thermocol is used as coarse aggregate in type 3 cube. The studies derived the following densities of 3 3 concrete. Type1 cube density = 800kg/m , Type - 2 coal as coarse aggregate density = 920kg/m 3 and type - 3 thermocol as coarse aggregate density = 700kg/m . The concrete structures built in this way do not corrode like iron, decay like wood and are environmental friendly unlike plastics which are presently used in structures that float on water.
Remote Sensing (RS) And Geographical Information System (GIS) For The Real Time Land Use Pattern In The Urban Planning Of Bangalore
K. N. Vishwanath , Supraja I. , Khushboo R Jain and Ali Akbar M Aziz
Due to urbanization, overexploitation of the available natural resources for meeting the growing demand for food, fuel and fibre of the ever-increasing population has led to serious environmental degradation. Furthermore, rapid industrialization coupled with - deforestation has led to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting in global warming. Encroachment of land without considering its suitability for the construction of residential buildings, laying pavements etc., has led to serious disasters and has created new risks. Due to rapid urbanization, the vegetation cover and natural water bodies such as lakes, ponds etc., are being encroached to construct high rise apartment buildings, office space and road construction, etc. (case study - Bangalore city). The Geographical Information System (GIS) provides the synoptic view of a fairly large area at a regular interval space borne multispectral measurements, it holds great promise in generating reliable information on various natural resources, viz. soils, minerals, surface and ground water, forest cover and marine resources in a timely and cost - effective manner. GIS offers an ideal environment for integrating spatial and attributable data on natural resources and environment, and for the subsequent generation of the optimal land use plan. With the extensive use of GIS and Remote Sensing (RS), encroachment of land and natural resources can be measured and documented. The geographical and geotechnical investigations reveal the facts of the land use and its suitability, whereas the advanced technologies such as GIS and RS, help in mapping the encroached zones. These can ease protection of natural resources. An information portal can be created with the collected data to create public awareness about their surrounding natural resources and also achieve sustainability of these natural resources. This paper overviews the magnitude of the land degradation problem, concepts of sustainable development based on the conservation of land and water resources to estimate the damages caused and also the remedial measures that can be implemented with the aid of RS and GIS.
Engineering, Space Technology, Remote Sensing, Geographical Information System, Resource
Management, Urbanisation
Research & Publications Department 