Magicrete: Promoting Green Way to Construction

Founded in 2008 by Alumni of some of the most prominent technical institutes in India including IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, and IIM Lucknow, Magicrete Building Solutions is one of India's leading manufacturers of AAC Blocks, and has recently diversified in to precast concrete elements - a path-breaking technology in the construction Industry. With a vision of introducing pre-fabricated construction technologies to the Indian construction and infrastructure industry, the company aims to create value for all stakeholders in its value chain by following the principles of agile enterprise. In an interaction with Syed E. Hasan, Mr. Saurabh Bansal, the company's managing director and co-founder, discussed how Magicrete is promoting Green Construction practices.

There are three verticals in Magicrete viz-a-viz AAC blocks, dry-mix mortar, and precast technology. "Magicrete AAC block is our flagship product. Autoclaving (high pressure steam curing) process and hexagonal porous structure give these blocks strength to weight ratio, which is higher than that of M150 concrete. These blocks are nine times larger than the regular red clay-brick resulting in six-times lesser joints, and three-times faster construction. These light-weight blocks have three-times lesser density than red-clay bricks, reducing the overall dead weight of the building, which then translates into structural steel and concrete saving of up to 20%," discloses Mr. Bansal adding that Magicrete is India's only manufacturer making ISI Grade-1 blocks, which have 33% more strength than others.

Elaborating on other features, Mr. Bansal says that discontinuous porous microscopic structure does not allow capillary action in these AAC blocks, which reduces water penetration by up to five-times. Apart from this, these blocks have a sound transmission rating of 44db, facilitating sound-proof interiors. Thus, a 9-inch external brick wall can be replaced with a 6-inch Magicrete AAC blocks wall. "Further, these AAC blocks come with excellent dimensional accuracy (tolerance of 1%), and therefore, hardly need any plaster or the plaster-thickness is reduced drastically. Coupling all these factors, usage of AAC blocks results in carpet area increase of up to 2%," he asserts adding that to complement the AAC Blocks, the company has recently added a dry-mix division comprising products such as MagicBond® - an adhesive mortar for quick-laying of AAC blocks, Tiles & Stones, and MagicPlast® - Gypsum-based, Cement-based, and spray-able plastering solution.

Dry mix mortar is an innovative technology that offers an extremely thin-joint (~2mm), an alternative to the conventional mortar. "It's a factory-mixed mortar manufactured in a computerised environment, and constituted by cement, graded sand, and blended with polymers. Even at 2-3mm thickness, it imparts high strength and water retention properties. Thanks to the controlled manufacturing process, the output quality is consistent across batches. These are all ready-mix mortars and are delivered on site in bags or special silos," says Mr. Bansal suggesting that various physical and chemical properties of dry mortar are pre-tested in laboratory, eliminating any scope of inconsistency. "AAC blocks absorb moisture from the mortar due to their porous nature. This result in pinhole gaps in masonry, directly affecting the bond strength of the mortar while heat and water passes through it," he adds.

With all these and many more green attributes, Magicrete is all set for the much-hyped central government scheme 'Housing for all by 2022' and the ambitious 'Smart Cities' projects, both entail lots of buildings, that too at lower costs. "Besides being economical, buildings made with AAC blocks are earthquake-resistant as the earthquake forces are directly proportional to the dead weight of a building. These apart, being made of 70% of fly-ash, Magicrete AAC blocks are completely green in nature, and when used, provide maximum points in LEED certification to the structure. What's more, these blocks are five-times more energy-efficient and six-times more thermally insulating compared to red bricks thus induce savings of up to 30% in HVAC cost," explains Mr. Bansal.

Notably, the company has build-up strong infrastructure consisting of two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities – one at Navsari, near Surat on the Mumbai-Surat highway, and another at Jhajjar near Gurgaon in Haryana – covering the strategic markets of West and North India, respectively, catering to more than 3,000 clients spread across 30 cities in 14 states through its widespread network of 2,000 stores. "As of now, the total installed capacity is 8,00,000 CBM/annum, which is equivalent to walling requirement for 1000 high-rise buildings. Our plants are strategically located close to thermal power plants ensuring smooth supply of raw materials. The plants are also within 250 km radius of most urbanised regions of India like Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Nasik, Surat, Vadodara, Bharuch, Ahmedabad," says Mr. Bansal.

According to him, it took some time, but now AAC Blocks are getting good appreciation in the market especially in western province where the government seems concerned of green construction. "Recently, under the Chief Minister Awaas Yojana, Gujarat state has built 1,500 dwellings, for which it was mandatory to use fly-ash brick and blocks, wherein we supplied a significant portion of the blocks used. However, it will take some more time in North. The testimony of this fact is that since the time of our inception in 2008 in Surat, we observe that the penetration of these blocks has been to the extent of 50% whereas in North, it is hardly 8%," shares Mr. Bansal adding that it all depends on the awareness level of the people at large. "I am sure, with the passage of time, more people would love to use it as the product is really wonderful."

Elaborating further on the reason of low penetration, he says, "The tax structure, which eventually makes clay bricks excise-free as against the AAC blocks, which are loaded with excise besides complying with other stricter norms thus creating additional costs. This is actually preventing us from scaling further. Nevertheless, GST's introduction would bring a big relief to our industry as for that matter it will provide a level-playing field because the same tax structure would then be applicable to the red clay bricks makers also," he quips. Meanwhile, in order to promote green building practices, the government is approving only those projects, which have the specifications of using fly-ash bricks and blocks thus putting a cap on the use of conventional red clay-bricks.

Interestingly, the company is also promoting its precast division, which a few big developers like Supertech, Amrapali, BCC, L&T, etc are already using in their respective projects. "For precast technology, we do turnkey, right from design to installation of the building wherein builders have an important role of bringing in projects, which our structural engineers will then design and develop as the precast-friendly and execute," informs Mr. Bansal adding that precast brings change by providing a one-stop solution for all the construction needs. "The precise casting of concrete under controlled circumstances ensures adherence to the highest international standards of safety and production."

Today, for all the bridges, the infrastructure is built using precast. "The time is not far that same will replicate in the residential segment keeping in view the rapidly increasing labour cost followed by the issues arising out of the delayed project deliveries. We are soon expecting policies putting stricter control on delivery timeline issues. So, it would be imperative for developers to opt for this technology in time to come. If we look at the cost of the project, it is becoming an important apprehension for the developers, and precast technology is the only way to restrain these costs," suggests Mr. Bansal.

Responding to precast diversification aspects, Mr. Bansal underscores that this is pretty strategic and perfectly fits in line with the company's growth trajectory, and that the company would initially target individual houses with its precast division. "Recently, we have delivered a villa in Surat (Gujarat) within seven days. We want to scale it up across the country. In this connection, we have launched 'BuildMyGhar.com'- an online platform, using which, visitors would be able to look at various home designs to select the most suited one. Once the design is finalised, we would deliver the project within 60 to 90 days timeframe, using precast technology."

Advocating the use of precast, he says, "It helps reduce the construction cost by 10-15% because of the time and labour efficiencies. Ordinarily, a 10-storyed building takes a year and a half to get completed, whereas precast brings down the delivery time up to 60% thus saving on various fronts including interest cost, supervision cost, manpower cost, etc. Additionally, the quality of construction is improvised because of the consistency in quality of concrete that truly depends on the quality of raw materials, which is strictly maintained in the precast technology as the mixing ratios of the components onsite has greater chances to vary from batch to batch."