HYDERABAD: For the first time in Telangana, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), in coordination with a private construction company, is employing tunnel form construction method for 2BHK Housing scheme at Rampally on the city’s outskirts. If things go as planned, the apartments in the 10-storeyed structure will have no bricks and pillars. However, pillars will be needed for the cellar construction.
The spade work for the unique construction has already begun. DEC Infra, which bagged the tender for the Rampally housing scheme, will build 6,000 two-bedroom flats. Tunnel form technology combines the speed, quality and accuracy with the flexibility and economy of in situ construction. Besides, it will substantially reduce the need for workforce as well as time and cost.
The construction time is considerably less than in conventional methods. Since the construction can be managed by a limited number of highly qualified foremen, their assistants and regular workers, there will be a reduction in the strength of the workforce, which leads to substantial cost savings, GHMC chief engineer (housing) Kanna Suresh Kumar told The Sunday Standard. Curing of an entire pillar-less floor with steel concrete slab and wall without bricks can be completed in less than three days since the wall and slab concrete is poured at the same time.
Thus, a 10-floor apartment building can be built in just over a month’s time. The technology allows construction of efficient load-bearing and earthquake-resistant structures. It is particularly suitable for residential blocks and big apartments, Suresh Kumar said. After the tunnel forms are positioned, steel reinforcement is fixed and concrete poured and then left overnight to be cured. In a day or two, when the concrete gets hardened to around 60 per cent, the tunnel forms are lowered and removed, then back-propped and are positioned again for the next day’s work. In western countries, the tunnel form construction is common and is done in a short time.
What is tunnel form building system?
The tunnel form is a construction system that allows the contractor to cast concrete steel walls and slabs in one operation without any pillars for construction of horizontal and vertical elements (walls and
floors) together