Proper town planning is needed to absorb the future growth in vehicle
population and expansion of construction industry stemming from the
growing requirements of a growing population, said S. Natarajan, General
Manager & Head, Construction Skills and Training, L & T.

“If
we do not do our town planning in a better way, we are going to end up
in a situation where there would be no space for construction of new
buildings. We may have integrated townships comprising all basic
infrastructure such as schools, colleges and hospitals not to speak of
the implementation of a work culture involving less travel in future,”
said Mr. Natarajan while inaugurating TECHNOCRAT 2K13, a national-level
technical symposium, organised by the Department of Civil Engineering of
Thanthai Periyar Government Institute of Technology (TPGIT) on the
college campus here on Wednesday.

He stressed the need for an
integrated traffic management taking into account the increasing vehicle
population, the emergence of new buildings and the on-going road repair
and other works involving digging of roads. “Though we keep on laying
new roads and widening roads, the increase in vehicle population would
result in a situation in future where there would be no roads for the
vehicles to ply. Even at present, we do not have a situation where we
could travel from one place to another within the given time. This
buttresses the need for a proper traffic management,” he said.

The
country would face a situation where within another 10 years, only
green buildings would be approved, in view of the critical energy and
environment situation. The green building concept envisages use of
construction materials which could be recycled and used in the
construction industry when the building needed to be demolished for some
purpose or the other. The concept also incorporated low carbon emission
and energy efficiency.

The L & T official said that
employment was not a problem for civil engineering students, but
employability would be a problem for them if they failed to acquire
communication skills and other soft skills which are expected of them
from employers. Though many civil engineers are produced by engineering
colleges, more than 60 to 70 per cent of them go for the IT industry.

“Civil
engineering is the best profession to those who stick on to it,” he
said. Hard work and application of mind was very essential for civil
engineers, he added.

Mr. Natarajan released a souvenir in
connection with the symposium. S. Rajkumar, Vice-Principal, TPGIT, who
presided, said that jobs are plenty for civil engineers as the
construction of new buildings and destruction of old buildings would be a
continuing process. Besides, a lot of research is going on in areas of
making of construction products using recovered used tyres, value-added
construction materials from building debris, development of composite
materials, and fire-proof and earthquake-proof structures.

G.
Panneerselvam, professor and Head of the Department of Civil
Engineering, TPGIT, who welcomed the gathering, urged the students to be
smart and acquire extra-curricular skills so that they become
employable in a situation where the supply of civil engineers was more
than the demand.

J. Sreerambabu, convener, said that the symposium
was a good platform for students to develop their extra-curricular
skills. S. Manoj, student secretary, proposed a vote of thanks.