Sustainable Low‑cost Housing:
This article reviews the various housing schemes implemented in India post-independence. This year marking the 75 years of independence, the demand for affordable housing for economically weaker sections and low-income groups is at stake in the country. In achieving “Housing for all” in the rapidly urbanizing Indian context, textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) technology promises to be environmentally and economically “affordable” by consuming significantly fewer quantities of building materials with high embodied energy.
Textile reinforced concrete is the most durable, lightweight, and highly ductile structural component with its non-corrosive textiles replacing the conventional steel reinforcement used, and it can be the most feasible solution to the problem of implementing affordable housing in urban India. TRC has been an excellent solution for the retrofitting and strengthening of existing infrastructures paving its progressive research direction of using this as a load-bearing structural component. With a substantially lower carbon footprint than conventional RCC structures, TRC offers better potential for sustainability. Furthermore, this article proposes a futuristic direction to enhance the research on the application of TRC as a structural component for prefabricated low-cost housing.
Urban sprawl and migration from rural to cities have resulted in severe housing scarcity in metropolitan India, especially among the economically weaker sections of society. The “Summit on Sustainable Development” in New York in September 2015 with 193 United Nations member nations gathered with a solid motive to eradicate poverty by 2030 in developing countries and to build a sustainable future considering the 17 sustainability global goals. By 2030, one of the most important goals was to ensure everyone would have access to adequate, secured, reasonably priced housing with all the basic amenities and to rehabilitate the slums.
As per the RBI report, by 2025, the Indians residing in cities are estimated to exceed 543 million. By 2020, urban regions will have contributed to more than 70% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, construction is the fourth largest industry. “Housing for All” a government initiative in India, is anticipated to attract 1.3 trillion US dollars in investments in the housing industry by 2025.
In India, an approximated deficit of around 18 million housing units was identified, of which 99% belong to the economically weaker sections of society. Hence, the policymakers in India foresaw this worldwide goal and set a lofty deadline of 2022 for achieving it in the country. The Indian government, along with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has taken several measures to help low-income families with various schemes and initiatives so that poverty in India is wholly eradicated.
“Affordable housing” is one such initiative of the government in which these housing units make them more accessible to the country’s poorest citizens. Housing regulations, government incentive schemes, and an interest subsidy scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) were all positive steps in this direction. This sector has enormous demand but very minimal supply. The United Nations funded the research project on Mainstreaming Sustainable Social Housing in India Project (MaS-SHIP), which is quite like the PMAY-U, it aimed to examine the social implications of the development of housing units in urban India.
Hence, this research on affordable housing is even more critical since it has the potential to address the problems, meet the tremendous demand in this low-cost housing sector, and bridge the supply–demand gap. The building phase was at a complete halt during the covid-19 epidemic, resulting in a significant delay in constructing houses for EWS communities. Following COVID, the cost of conventionally used construction materials has reached an all-time hike, necessitating the need to adopt a low-cost alternative material that functions well in all weather conditions and can be prefabricated and deployed on-site as soon as possible.
Most of the Housing models projected have steel reinforcement which is costly and exhibits corrosion well before the targeted service life of the structures. In alternative to this, thin and lightweight structural elements using Non-Corrosive Textile reinforced composite panels (TRCP) which eliminate thicker cover requirements can be a promising solution for affordable housing. TRC allows the design of very thin-structured concrete elements with high strength in compression and tension.