Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly changing consumer behaviour, and the real estate and construction industry need to accelerate the use of technology to improve its productivity, says Anup Mathew, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Godrej Construction.
India’s infrastructure sector is witnessing huge development, especially after the Indian government’s intense focus on modernising the nation’s infrastructure across various sectors such as airports, railways, roads, and smart cities. Ambitious infrastructure projects have given a humongous opportunity to this sector. In Union Budget 2021, the government has given a massive push to the infrastructure sector by allocating Rs. 233,083 crore (US$ 32.02 billion) to enhance the transport infrastructure. Moreover, the government announced Rs. 18,998 crore (US$ 2.61 billion) for metro projects. With such huge focus and support by the government along with technology adoption happening in various sectors, the future of Indian infrastructure looks promising. Multiple factors are driving the need for technology adoption in the infrastructure space. Nature of work, the roles of infrastructure stakeholders, changing customer behaviour, etc are changing how infrastructure services are delivered. Companies are realising that they need to adopt new technologies and processes to suit the new times. While AI and 3D printing technology are being implemented for limited use cases, these technologies are yet to make deep inroads into everyday construction processes and systems. Some of the technologies which are currently in demand in the construction and real estate sector include software technologies for project management systems, progress tracking and visualisation tools, software systems for architectural & engineering design, Enterprise Resource Planning and Management software system, drone technology, IoT, automation for smart homes & offices, Building Management Systems etc.
The Covid 19 pandemic is rapidly changing consumer behaviour. Therefore, the real estate and construction industry will need to accelerate the use of such technologies.