India’s subsidized housing scheme is estimated to consume 15.8mn mt of steel said the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri in a webinar for promoting the use of steel in the construction sector. The Indian government has till date sanctioned the construction of 10.7mn houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) or PMAY (U) scheme. The project has so far utilized 8.4mn mt of steel for the completion of 6.7mn houses in 4,550 cities. The Indian government has invested Rs6,320bn($84.46bn) for the scheme.
Emphasising the use of steel for urban transport, the minister said that approximately 13,000mt of steel (including structural steel, stainless steel, HT steel, reinforcement steel) is required for construction of one km metro projects. Around 900km of the metro network is under construction in 27 cities of India, said the minister.
In the next five years, 15 new airport terminal buildings are planned at a cost of Rs.150bn, said Puri, who is also the Aviation minister. A large amount of steel is consumed for the construction of airport terminals. The value of the steel procured for building airport terminal is expected to be approximately Rs19.05bn in the next five years. On average steel forms 12-15pc of the cost component for building an airport, commented Puri.
India’s smart cities mission is also expected to indirectly boost steel demand. Around 100 smart cities projects have been identified across India and 4,700 projects worth Rs1,660bn are being tendered, which is around 81pc of the total proposed projects.
The minister has urged steelmakers to develop new strategies and technologies to speed up the construction process and reduce carbon footprint.
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