Light House Projects by SkeletonLHP Agartala Arch rendered

Project Details
Client: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs & BMTPC
EPC Contractor: KPR Projecton (LHP Indore)
JAM Sustainable Housing LLP (LHP Lucknow)
Mitsumi Housing (LHP Agartala)
Architect: Sthapati Associates
Structural Consultant: Skeleton Consultants
Steel Fabricator: Altis Industries
Stelloid Infrastructure
Struc-Rite Metal Building Systems
S. Pushp Steel Structural Trading Co.
Infinity Fabtech
Arman Steelcon


The increasing demand for residential units in the country with speedier construction, has encouraged use of innovative technologies that are being practiced the world over. Structural steel with its in-built attributes when integrated with these technologies offers added advantages of assured quality, enhanced durability, reliable performance, cost effectiveness, and rapid construction of multi-storey residential projects.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had organized a Global Housing Technology Challenge - India (GHTC- India) with the aim to identify and mainstream a basket of innovative technologies from across the globe for the housing construction sector. These should be sustainable, eco-friendly, and disaster resilient. Shortlisted technologies from the challenge are being used to construct Light House Projects (LHP) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) at six locations across India.

Light House Projects by SkeletonLHP Agartala Etabs wireframe
The LHPs are being built using cutting-edge technology to demonstrate and deliver ready-to-live houses with speed, economy, and better quality of construction in a sustainable manner, suitable to the geo-climatic and hazard conditions of the region.

Skeleton has been associated from the initial stage on the development of these alternate technologies for use in housing construction. Currently, the company is providing structural engineering consultancy services for three Light House Project (LHP) at Indore, Lucknow and Agartala.

“Skeleton has the expertise and competency in projects using structural steel and alternate technologies. Our learnings from past projects and understanding of innovative technologies has helped us in delivering efficient and optimized structural designs of these projects,” says Nitesh Agrawal, General Manager, Skeleton Consultants.

Light House Projects by SkeletonLHP Indore Etabs wireframe

Structural Aspects of Project
With the aim of using these projects as live demonstration for future projects on different aspects of transfer of these technologies to field application, the structural configuration and construction material was selected based on various parameters, such as functionality, performance, availability, and ease of construction, after brainstorming with each stakeholder.
Nitesh Agrawal, General Manager, Skeleton Consultants
Skeleton is currently providing structural engineering consultancy to three Light House Projects at Indore, Lucknow, and Agartala. Our learnings from past projects and understanding of innovative technologies has helped us in delivering efficient and optimized structural designs of these projects

Nitesh Agrawal, General Manager, Skeleton Consultants

Project’s structural aspects include the following:
  • The residential towers in these projects range from G+6 to G+13.
  • Considering the latest developments in the field, demand for cost-effective, rapid and sustainable design, and obtaining desired performance to satisfy various codal provisions, the buildings are envisaged as RC steel hybrid structures.
  • The structural system of buildings consists of substructure up to plinth level in RCC and superstructure in ductile RC structural walls with pre-engineered structural steel frames.
  • To achieve economy in design, sturdy structural behaviour and to enable faster construction, RC structural walls are proposed only at common areas around Stairs & Lifts with structural steel frames at most of the locations.
  • The RC structural walls along with special moment steel frames at selected locations are designed to cater to the lateral load due to wind and earthquake. The other frames are designed as ordinary moment frames to transfer only gravity loads.
  • The floor system comprises of steel beams with concrete slab over deep profiled metal deck sheet to avoid intermediate joist to achieve clear height.
  • The structural design of buildings is carried out in accordance with the provisions of IS875, IS1893, IS456, IS800 and NBC.
  • The structural design of buildings has been peer reviewed and approved by IIT Delhi and committee comprising of experts from IITs, CBRI and BMTPC.
Challenges & Complexities
To make the system future-ready, various challenges and complexities were faced:
  • The Lateral load resistant system: Out of the various available alternatives like moment frames, RC Shear walls, braced frames, dampers, base isolation etc, dual system of RC structural walls & steel frames was adopted owing to their aesthetics, functional, structural, cost-effectiveness and constructability. The location of shear walls and special moment frames were carefully chosen to fulfill the behavior in dynamic effects due to wind & earthquake.
  • Integration with Shortlisted Technology: The technical details and installation procedure of Shortlisted Technology were understood from the technology provider of each project. The detailing of structural system has been done to accommodate the technology components in design with ease.
  • Economic & rapid construction: During the design development, it was stressed to have symmetric configuration and modular design. The structure has been designed & detailed considering high strength factory made pre-engineered steel sections with bolted connection in such a way that it’s easy, repetitive and enhances construction productivity with reliable quality & rapid erection, also reducing wastage and unskilled work.
Light House Projects by SkeletonLHP Lucknow Arch rendered

Building Frames
  • The primary frames of the building consist of rigid jointed special moment resisting structural steel frames to cater to lateral loads with RC structural walls.
  • Secondary frame comprises of ordinary moment resisting structural steel frames to cater to gravity loads only.
  • For floor system, steel beams at frame location were provided without any secondary members such as joists.
  • Plate fabricated I section made of high strength steel having yield strength of 345 MPa have been used for framing & flooring members.
Salient Features of Project
  • Use of alternate innovative technologies for rapid & sustainable construction.
  • In LHP at Indore, Japanese technology of Prefabricated Sandwich Panel system made of cement or calcium silicate boards and cement mortar with EPS granules balls shall be used.
  • The light houses in Agartala will be built using Light Gauge Steel Frame (LGSF) System technology innovated in New Zealand. LGSF system is made of galvanized light gauge steel components produced by cold forming method.
  • Canada’s technology of Stay in place (SIP) PVC wall will be used in Lucknow. The SIP walls consist of rigid poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) based polymer panels as a permanent stay-in-place finished formwork for concrete.
Advantages of these technologies
  • Being factory made, brings speed in construction.
  • The panels have lightweight material as core material, which brings resource efficiency, better thermal insulation, acoustics & energy efficiency.
  • Being light in weight results in lower dead load of building & foundation size.
Structural Uniqueness of Project
  • The superstructure is designed in structural steel which offers flexibility and strength, in addition to being lightweight. Using structural steel, forces in the structure are reduced and its foundations are therefore lighter. This reduction of design forces significantly reduces the cost of both the superstructure and foundations of a building.
  • The use of dual system of RC structural walls & high strength pre-engineered steel frames for lateral load resistance offers better and reliable structural behavior and ease of construction where both the activities can be carried out independently.
  • The combination of special moment resisting frames & ordinary moment frames helped in optimizing the cost since the lateral loads were transferred at selected locations only and most of the structure needs to withstand gravity loads only.
  • High strength plate fabricated I section produced in factories with controlled quality and accuracy have been used to suit the demand of these fasttrack projects.
Brimax AAC: An Indian Lighthouse Project from HESS AAC SYSTEMS, Netherlands
Brimax AAC Products LLP contracted Hess AAC Systems to supply a new AAC plant in Vadodara, India, with a capacity of 680 cbm/day (expandable up to 900 cbm/day with reinforcement for panel production). This order strengthens Hess´ position as

Read more ...

Vollert India Expands Production Capacity to Cater to Infra Development Sector
Vollert India, based in Sikandrabad, near Greater Noida (UP) since 2017, is strengthening its commitment to India; it is now expanding its production capacity of precast machinery and components to meet the greater demand from India’s fast

Read more ...

Elematic Precast Technology Solutions for Building, Industrial and Infra segments
Elematic offers a comprehensive range of precast technology solutions for the Building, Industrial and Infra segments. Elematic precast technology enables clients to automate the production of walls, slabs, columns, beams, and stairs, providing an efficient

Read more ...

Advanced Concrete Curing Systems from Kraft Curing
Kraft Curing Systems GmbH is offering advanced concrete curing systems that optimize the hardening process of concrete. Kraft Curing’s Advanced Concrete Curing System provides numerous solutions, from vapor-based (steam) systems mainly for the precast

Read more ...

Why Automating Production is the Solution
Automating the production processes will lead to reduced wastage, fewer errors, more precision, greater safety, and higher quality of the end-products, and in a shorter period of time. First, we need to understand where we stand today as regards industrialisation

Read more ...

Elematic India confident of the future of Precast Business
Elematic India sees growing demand for its precast plants in India due to the growth in precast construction across segments. What gives the company an edge is its ability to support the customer through the entire value chain. Says Sridhar Rao, Sales

Read more ...

F.B.I. Tasbud Partners With Progress Group
Progress Group is helping companies like Tasbud stay ahead in a changing market with automation and software integration. Automated machinery to produce precast elements as well as the reinforcement and the integration of the fitting software are

Read more ...

Mekuba Petro Products - Catering to Mega Precast Concrete Projects
Mekuba Petro Products has a strong presence in the petrochemicals industry since 47 years and has been growing rapidly in the construction chemicals segment over the past decade. An expert in the formulation and production of mould-releasing agents, its

Read more ...

Precast & PEB Construction Opportunities for Entrepreneurs
C. A. Prasad, Director, Metey Engineering & Consultancy and President, PSI, Hyderabad, guides entrepreneurs on the various aspects of Precast and PEB construction business. Quality assurance and timely construction using Precast and PEB produced

Read more ...

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Blocks
A sunrise segment in India’s building materials industry, the AAC block is finding preference over the red brick and emerging as the future of building construction. Mohit Saboo, Director & CFO BigBloc Construction

Read more ...

A Stellar Modernization of Construction With Precast in NCR, India
What influenced the Stellar Group’s decision to build with precast and invest in a precast plant. The well-known Indian ‘Stellar Group’, which has been successfully working in the construction business for over 25 years, is convinced that precast is the future

Read more ...

Sardinian industry leader invests in automated mould from Progress Group to advance production
Recently, a highly automated mould for the production of pillars from Tecnocom, a company of the Progress Group, has been installed to help industry leader Consultecna stay ahead. Francesco Pireddu explains the decision made in favour of automation although

Read more ...

AHCT’s Smart Solutions for Smart Contractors
Technology companies have developed hardware and software solutions to help manage every aspect of a construction project, no matter how complex or massive the project may be. Harsh Pareek, Regional Sales Director, India and SAARC, Trimble Solutions

Read more ...

Echo Precast Engineering Helps Modernize Pruksa’s Precast Plants
Thailand’s real estate developer Pruksa, a leader in the building sector, modernizes its building solutions with automated hollow core production plant equipped with machinery from Echo Precast Engineering, a company of the PROGRESS GROUP. Real estate developer Pruksa

Read more ...

Dongyue Machinery Group gearing up to meet rising demand for AAC Bricks in India
Dongyue Machinery Group is offering Autoclaves Aerated Concrete (AAC) blocks, brick blocks, hollow blocks, curb stones, color blocks etc. AAC Blocks, which are lightweight concrete blocks, use less cement compared to traditional cement bricks, and are therefore eco-friendly

Read more ...

B.E. Billimoria Changing the Face of India
BE Billimoria & Company is one of India’s leading firms of civil engineering construction contractors. Ranging from commercial, residential spaces to some of the most iconic buildings in the country, like the 316-meter Namaste Tower, are among their project list

Read more ...

Advanced Concrete Curing Systems from Kraft Curing Systems GmbH
Kraft Curing Systems GmbH is offering advanced concrete curing systems that optimize the hardening process of concrete. Kraft provide numerous solutions, from vapor-based (steam) systems mainly for the precast industry, to heating/air circulation systems

Read more ...

LARCO partners with ECHO Precast to set up production site for prefab elements
The production site of LARCO PREFAB S.A. in Welkenraedt, Belgium opened in 2018 and has grown consistently over the years. LARCO produces a range of prefabricated concrete elements such as hollow core slabs, columns, wall panels, soccles

Read more ...

Special prefabricated elements specialist Klaus relies on fully individualised automation solutions
Klaus Hoch- und Tiefbau GmbH is upgrading its machines in the precast concrete plant with several automated systems from progress Maschinen & Automation and Tecnocom - companies of the Progress Group. With the individualised reinforcement machines

Read more ...

Prefab Housing
Civil Construction in India has not been as much industrialized as it has been in the West. Presently, it shares barely 1-2% of the real estate market, though as per a recent study, it is expected to grow @8.5% in the decade of 2016-2026

Read more ...