Our marketing division was supplying an electronic component to a stabiliser manufacturer on a regular basis.When the unit wanted an extension for their building naturally we got the job for design and construction of that building.
This stabiliser manufacturing unit was manufacturing stabilisers for a well known brand along with many similar units run by Christian priests and nuns.They will do procurement of raw materials and components from sources identified by the marketing company,employ school and college drop out girls for the assembling work.After manufacturing and testing they will pack the product and deliver to retail shop selling the product as per directions of the marketing company in whose brand name product is being sold.
One day I checked up the price indicated on the packed stabiliser and asked the priest in charge-“How much you get out of this price?”
Price figure indicated by him was really surprising to me.It was just one fourth of the selling price of the product.Nearly three fourth of price goes as possibly marketing expenses including advertisement expenses through media and Point of Purchase ad material costs,margin of marketing company and profit for retail seller.
So while watching colourful advertisements in TV and news papers we never realise the fact that we are paying for all these ad campaigns possibly with an added percentage of margin to the marketing company for advertisement expenses.
I have been watching construction of a four story apartment project just in front of my office and another apartment project for three story near my house in the recent period.
The project in front of my office was done by a fairly known builder who advertise and sell his apartments.This builder regularly buy land in Cochin,build similar apartments on a regular basis and sell apartments also on a regular basis.The other project(I will call it as Project B) is being done by an unknown builder who may be selling apartments through contacts and possibly they may not continue to build like this unlike Project A
Project A has regular workers to whom they are paying almost half the wages prevailing in the industry.They simply do not care about quality of work.Their only attempt is to finish the work as early as possible.North Indian workers staying at site without much facilities are persuaded to do overtime work even during night so that work will get completed fast.
I have noticed with shock that for four story building they are doing excavation for column footings simply by Jcb excavation to minimum depths.Mat footing concrete is using not even sufficient size steel bars and just four nos 12 mm steel bars are used for columns with stirrup spacing as high as 30 cm or more.I asked one of the supervisors-“Will it not fall down if you do like this?”
He simply smiled and said-“We are regularly doing like this and so far nothing has fallen down.After all buyers are going to see building only after painting.At that time it will look good”
In our country there is no government machinery to check and enforce proper structural design for buildings being constructed and any body can do as they pleases and ordinary house building owners simply do not know anything about structural design or importance of proper structural work for the building ensuring structural stability of the building.They are only interested in getting lowest”square feet cost” of construction for the building they construct.Who bothers even if the builder does not even use proper steel reinforcement? If you use adequate steel reinforcement with professional guidance from a structural consultant,cost of construction will go up.When the customer is interested only in getting lowest”square feet cost” of construction why should builder spend more money to ensure structural stability of the building?
Recently I was rather shocked to receive mail from a qualified experienced engineer working abroad on construction projects asking me to quote my square feet cost of construction.So much for the lack of awareness even among professionals thus allowing crooks to flourish in the industry
I was watching Project B running construction from the beginning.They were doing the construction strictly as per the best procedure with proper professional design and quality.They are not well known builders.They do not advertise heavily through internet,media and hoardings.Probably they will not be getting buyers like usual players in the trade and may not get same high prices and thereby higher profits.
It is high time awareness about proper construction methods and procedures are known to potential buyers.Most of the bigger players in apartment business do not do anything other than marketing and reaping profits.They simply subcontract entire work on smaller players to earn huge margins from buyers who simply trust more advertised names.For them it is very easy to build lakhs of square feet within the committed delivery period.After all who bothers about quality?
“With painting and finishing works nobody will be able to notice defects initially.After purchase the apartment society will worry about quality problems and manufacturing defects”
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