Sprawling jungles of steel, cement, machinery, and engineers and workers on site ? be it an upcoming Metro station or a flyover in construction, one look at your surroundings is enough to drive the message home that Indian infrastructure industry is certainly gaining on.
Considering the massive landmass that our country is, the scope of infrastructure in various forms, viz roads and highways, flyovers, railway and metro lines, ports and airports, toll plazas, etc, is immense.
What has been a sector lagging behind others for years, now looks promising as its engines of growth are being fuelled by the emerging demands of the world?s second-fastest growing major economy. Indian economy has undergone fundamental changes over the last decade. The strong level of economic growth achieved in the country of late has led to an expansion of industry, commerce and per capita income. This, in turn, has resulted in the growth of infrastructure services, including energy, transportation, telecom, water supply and urban infrastructure. Needless to say, there will be a lot of structuring opportunities in our country that will create a huge demand for civil engineers.
The investment in infrastructure, at home, has increased from 4.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2002-03 to 7.18% in 2008-09. It is expected to increase to 8.37% in the final year of the 11th Plan and likely to touch 10% of GDP in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017). In fact, as per this year?s Union Budget, India has increased her spending on infrastructure by 23%!
The initiatives taken by the government, including opening up a number of infrastructure sectors to private players, promoting investment in the sector by permitting FDI, huge spending on projects like the National Highway Development Project, National Maritime Development Programme, etc, have opened up significant opportunities for investors.
Considered one of the oldest engineering disciplines, civil engineering involves planning, designing and executing structural works. The profession deals with an array of engineering tasks, including designing, supervision and construction activities of public works such as roads, buildings, airports, dams, bridges, tunnels, water works, ports and sewage systems. Planning and designing a project, constructing the project to the required scale, and maintenance of the product comes under the purview of a civil engineer. The major specialisations within civil engineering are structural, water resources, environmental, construction, transportation, geo-technical engineering etc.
To cope up with the growing pressures of the industry, students of civil engineering need to develop highly specialised skills, such as creativity and an innovative approach to solving problems; the ability to analyse and interpret diverse, complex data; critical thinking and the ability to evaluate designs, plans and projects; effective assessment and management of risk, resources and time; highly developed numeracy and computer literacy; interpersonal sensitivity, persuasiveness and the ability to work as part of a team; written and oral communication skills; and awareness of ethical as well as environmental issues.
Also, civil engineering graduates should focus on getting training-on-the job. Live industry projects, during internships, help the students a lot in developing some of the above listed skills. Based on the knowledge gained at hand through practical experience, students become worthy enough to apply for posts in the various R&D projects of companies related to infrastructure sector. They can easily find work as a supervisor of a construction site or a managerial position or in design, research, as well as in the teaching line.
Lastly, it would be wrong to say that for students of civil engineering the future simply looks promising. Rather with the growing number of flyovers, bridges, roads, metros, ports, canals, dams and buildings, this profession is bound to experience soaring heights.
The author is general secretary, Modern Institute of Engineering & Technology