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Gypsum walls may bring in radical changes in construction sector

KOCHI: The construction of a pilot dwelling unit, using fibre glass reinforced gypsum load-bearing wall panels from phosphogypsum, is fast progressing at Eloor, close to the headquarters of Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT), which has entered into an agreement with Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), Mumbai, and Australian firm Rapidwall Building Systems Pvt. Ltd. for producing wall panels on a commercial basis.

Rapidwall, RCF and FACT had signed a memorandum of understanding in February this year for setting up the wall panel production unit at an estimated cost of Rs.80 crore.

The pilot unit is being set up to instruct the public on the advantages of what the site engineers described as environment-friendly and low-cost technology.

The use of the wall panels from phosphogypsum is an answer to the perennial shortage of river sand, quarrying which constitutes one of the most widespread instances of environmental damage. Using gypsum panels also mean that burnt clay bricks too are out of the window.

The new product is capable of bringing about significant changes in the construction sector in the State, said P. Dinakar, consultant.

John Kennewell, who is among the experts supervising the construction process, said that buildings using the gypsum panels were also earth-quake resistant. Construction cost could be reduced by 25 per cent.

A 1,500 sq ft demonstration for which the structural designs had been approved by the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, would be ready in under 25 days, said Mr. Dinakar.

He said the foundation for a building using gypsum panel could be a conventional one and suited to the soil on which the building was being erected.

A demonstration unit, like the one coming up at Eloor, was set up in Mumbai three years ago.

The Australian company will provide the technology and equipment for proposed wall panel unit that would use the large reservoir of phosphogypsum available with FACT. The gypsum panel unit here would have the capacity to produce seven lakh sq. m of panels a year.

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