In a bid to make infrastructure for Covid 19 arrangements for Surat and South Gujarat region,
Saint-Gobain India-Gyproc, a market leader in the building construction space since the last 30 years, in association with Gujarat Government has converted an existing hospital premise in Majura Gate, Surat into a Covid-19 facility.
This was a part of the Gujarat government’s resolution to build Covid-19 facilities meeting WHO guidelines in less than three weeks, in the wake of the recent surge in cases reported.
The facility in Surat required the construction of wall partitions of 52,000 sq ft to create divided sections in order to set up more wards, sanitation areas, pantry and essential zones, with each area offering adequate space for every patient. Gyproc led the project providing design support, material movement, installation sequence, work force planning, on-site supervision and coordination with other agencies related to the project. The mammoth project saw completion in less than three weeks, making it one of the fastest constructions recorded in India. The successful transformation was made possible using Gypsum plasterboards based drywall technology that enabled speedy implementation.
According to Sarjan Technocrats MD & CEO, Kamal Parekh, they have faced two major challenges. First was to conceptualize and deliver the project in the shortest time span possible. Hence, traditional masonry that consumes a specific curing period, could not be used. The other major challenge was inadequate availability of labour to complete eight floors, as the majority of migrant labours had evacuated the state. Today, it is because of the Drywalls technology that we were able to deliver 600-bed facility to Surat and South Gujarat well within 17 days. With this solution, any government or private healthcare organisation can take advantage of its potential, particularly fire resistance, flexibility and workability, and deliver faster and superior healthcare facilities.
It was quiet a herculean task for all, considering the speed of construction required to meet the deadlines. Quick response time, instant material availability, on-site guidance along with the reliability and experience was one of the key criteria for us to choose Gyproc and their Drywall offering to aid the faster construction, observed Chirag Patel, Asst Vice President – Projects of PSP Constructions.
As a testimony, Gypsum based drywalls technology has already found widespread acceptance amongst the private healthcare players. More than 25 private healthcare chains have already used Drywalls technology in one or more of their projects. With government driving strong healthcare infrastructure with numerous super-specialty hospitals and new AIIMS campuses across the country as a part of Pradhana Manthri Swastya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), construction technologies such as Drywalls would only help make these facilities further accessible to the masses. Furthermore, the Government of India announced additional funding, new reforms and more healthcare targeted initiatives as a part of the Budget in 2020, in response to the pandemic-related needs.
The effectiveness of this project has inspired many other governments to consider replicating the model in more regions where growing number of cases continue to challenge healthcare infrastructure availability.
Across various
smart cities, efforts are being made to cope with COVID-19. Central to every smart city is the Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC). And during this pandemic, ICCCshave swung into action to help cities run smoothly even during strict lockdowns. In fact, across India, 45 smart city ICCCs were transformed overnight into COVID-19 war rooms. As the nerve centre for operations to contain the spread of the pandemic, these ICCCs were used efficiently for various municipal functions, including essential services like water supply, traffic management, street lighting, monitoring transportation movement, property tax collection and, most important, CCTV control for security.
