High Rises Not A Tall Order

India is steadily approaching towards new altitude. But, unlike traditional low-rise buildings, high-rises present several unique challenges of maintaining quality & durability, besides setting higher accountability, reports Syed E. Hasan.


With 20 delivered last year and over 50 in line for completion by the next couple of years, India seems to be fully geared up for the skyscrapers as the trend of vertical development is catching up across the country especially around the metros and their suburbs. Cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Noida, Greater Noida, etc. are scoring high on this front. Reason being the factors and circumstances – ranging from relaxed norms to consumer preference to the shortage of land and rising land prices – all are tilting in its favour on the back of rapidly expanding urban population due to massive migration.

Moreover, the advent of modern construction technology, availability of high performance building materials, and accessibility of advanced equipment, have together made it possible to construct safer, higher buildings. No wonder that some select developers/builders like Lodha, Raheja, Brys, Supertech, DLF, Parsvanath, Ansal, DDA, etc., are furthering the concept to various other cities lying in the vicinity of metros, which are supposed to accommodate the intended huge population shift in near future.

"Till quite recently, Mumbai was the only city to boast of high-rise buildings exceeding 150m in height, with the globally accepted standard of construction. Currently, however, the leading cities of the country are also in line to witness skyscrapers that are mostly under construction. These are largely residential projects, with a few mixed-use residential-cum-commercial constructions," said Mr. Anshuman Magazine, CMD, CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd.

However, prior to projecting such sky-rocketing feats, let's take a look at the ground realities to know if India is ready to deliver safe & sustainable tall/super tall buildings (above 150 meters). Are we fully equipped to touch new heights despite the fact that in most of the instances our builders fail to deliver good-quality low-rise houses owing to the use of poor-quality materials? They neither shy away from flouting safety norms, nor do they care for the building bye-laws or real estate regulations for setting up right construction practices. Besides, safety and well-being of the occupants are hardly of any concern. Adding to all this is the lack of technical knowhow, which is a must for keeping up pace with the contemporary global development.