Military Engineer Service adopting new techniques for faster construction and stronger structures

Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, September 25

The Military Engineer Service (MES) is adopting a new method of construction that is better suited for buildings in the seismically active and earthquake-prone regions as well as being economical.

“MES is planning work on the Tunnel Form System (TFS) in the coming times which will help with high seismic resistance due to monolithic slab and wall construction. This will reduce the number of joints in a structure and also cut down on labour costs and mobilisation overheads,” Lieutenant General Harpal Singh, the engineer-in-chief at the Army headquarters told The Tribune.

TFS is a technique that facilitates the casting of walls and slabs in one operation, which creates efficient load-bearing structures that are known to be earthquake-resistant and can be used in a wide variety of applications.

Large parts of the country are prone to earthquakes. Many places where the armed forces have large establishments or are deployed operationally, especially in the Himalayan belt, fall in the high-seismic activity zones.

The Army’s top engineer officer said the MES is introducing several new-age construction technologies such as 3D concrete construction, precast construction, light gauge steel structure systems, pre-engineered steel structure systems and modular volumetric construction.

“Our aim is to have faster output with better quality and better efficiency,” Lieutenant General Harpal said. “The new technologies offer the advantages of faster and flexible design as well as making it easier to bring to shape complex designs, rapid construction and enabling strong yet lightweight components. The construction will become cost effective in times to come once the economies of scale improve,” he added.

Mass and affordable housing, rapid construction areas including facilities in disaster management, establishment of mass storage and communication facilities and creating important road networks, runways and helipads are among areas where the new techniques can be used. Some of these are also well suited for making field defences and operational works on the borders.

Functioning under the engineer-in-chief, the MES is among the largest construction and maintenance agencies in India, with an annual budget of about Rs 13,000 crore. Dating back over 200 years, it is responsible for creating strategic and operational infrastructure across the country for the armed forces such as airfields, hangars, ports, residential and office accommodations, specialist facilities, hospitals, workshops, roads and other defence-related structures.

Recently, the MES constructed the first permanent married accommodation for soldiers at Gandhinagar and a runway controller hut at Pune using 3D printing construction techniques and modular components.

The MES is also taking several steps in enabling better soil stabilisation, waste management, water conservation and alternate energy facilities for which it has developed a practical ecosystem by co-opting Indian Institutes of Technology, central government research institutes and other scientific establishments.