Katerra's quicker house building tech enters India

Concrete offsite technology, developed by Silicon Valley start-up Katerra, is set to enter India as the company has decided to expand its business in India and West Asia, informed President of Katerra in Asia and the Middle East, Ash Bhardwaj. He explained that with housing as a focus area of the Indian government, Katerra has developed a project whereby houses can be built in 48 hours with the help of concrete offsite technology. It had recently showcased its technology to the Saudi Housing Ministry. Katerra in which SoftBank has invested $865 million, recently merged with KEF Infra, a leader in offsite manufacturing and pre-cast in India. On the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince and the Indo-Saudi Business Meet, Bhardwaj said that both India and Saudi Arabia have a similar problem of providing affordable housing for the masses. Urban India is short of about 10 million housing units, particularly among the economically challenged sections of the society, while 53 percent of the Saudi population does not own houses. Technology-first construction model and processes such as the DfMA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly) can provide sustainable solutions and simplify elements of construction by manufacturing offsite and assembling onsite, thereby balancing cost, quality and performance.