20-06-2014, 10:55 AM
THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE OF READY MIXED CONCRETE (RMC)
THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE OF READY MIXED CONCRETE.pdf (Size: 893.65 KB / Downloads: 76)
Abstract
Although the first RMC plant operated in India in 1987, the growth of RMC has picked
up only in the last decade. Most of the RMC plants are located in 7 large cities of
India, where they contribute 30% to 60% of total concrete used in these cities. RMC,
on all India basis contributes to about 5% of total concrete used. The growing
popularity of RMC in cities is for obvious reasons of constraints of construction space
and need to control environmental pollution. This is in spite of about 12% to 20%
higher cost as compared to site mixed concrete. The number of RMC plants in India,
are growing rapidly and being relatively new ones having most up-to-date machinery
and technology. The detailed information given in the paper is based on data collected
by 7 large offices of STUP Consultants P. Limited in India where they are actively
recommending the use of RMC in many major projects in all fields of Civil and
Engineering and Architectural applications – in essence to obtain better quality of
work..
Geographical spread of STUP Mumbai
To get a clear and up-to-date picture of what is happening in the seven most important urban centers of
India, where our large offices are located (I leave out 8 smaller offices in India and larger offices in the
Middle East, Europe and the USA, because these are not relevant to this presentation), I have collected
information on the present status of use of RMC versus total concrete used in these cities. The yellow
indicates where we have worked in the world since we were founded at Mumbai in 1963 - as a centre of
excellence for Asia and Africa in Prestressed Concrete. During the same period we have diversified to
try and reach excellence in every field of Structural, Civil Engineering and Architecture and we have
grown to a size of 1400 persons all searching for Excellence.
Please forgive me for speaking about my company at OWICS for the first time in 3 decades – the object
of giving these details is to indicate that we have tried to cover the use of RMC in these 7 major cities in
all the disciplines in which we are working.
Two Transit Mixers pouring RMC simultaneously
The percentage of RMC to total concrete being used is 28.5%. RMC is being used for bridges, flyovers
and large commercial and residential buildings.
The total volume of RMC used per year from 9 plants operating in Delhi is 1.56 million cubic meters.
Several big projects have their own Batching Plants and Transit Mixers and the aggregate volume
produced per annum from the same is difficult to quantify and has, therefore, been left out.
The price of RMC is in the range of US $ 90 to US $ 100 per cu.m. The price of concrete from onsite
Batching Plants for large projects is in the range of US $ 82 to 90 per cu.m., i.e. 9% to 10% cheaper
than RMC
Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway Project
Our Kolkata office considers that RMC is reasonably successful but expects that RMC will cater to 50%
of the total requirement in Kolkata in a decade.
While you can see a healthy growth in the above urban centres totaling about 8 million tons per annum,
our cement consumption is about 110 million tons per annum and India is the second largest consumer
of the same in the world, we are expected to close the gap with China in the next two decades.
The total volume of RMC used is about 12.24 million cu.m. per annum all over India. The average
transit time is 2 to 3 hours. You may note that only 5% of the total concrete consumed in India is RMC.
Generally RMC is a success in the Urban centers where the same is produced. Part of extra cost is
compensated by reduced labour and increased speed. Variability of time is a source of dis-satisfaction,
yet it is much better compared to delays at site due to shortage of cement supply, space, labour, etc.
Standard and Poor states that India will be the second largest economy in the world by 2050. Dr Abdul
Kalam, our immediate past President has written a well informed book saying India will be a developed
country by 2020, and more recently, while he was President, he said, because of the 4 eminent
economists running the country he expects we will reach this status earlier.