The construction industry is rapidly going digital, with BIM becoming an important part of it. BIM is allowing more intelligent use of resources and optimization of workflows, leading to productivity and profitability.

While many countries are going all out in its adoption, countries like India are yet to catch up.

As Mr Amarnath CB, Founder, India BIM Association, puts it, “We have about 30-40K people who are using BIM for projects, but most of the people providing these services are for the global markets, there are a very few who are providing the services for Indian projects largely because they are not able to convince clients about the benefits of BIM. When we talk about the level of development, it’s mainly for modeling, scheduling, estimation, and not for construction tracking or FM usage etc. There is a need for providing information about how this can be adopted for various stages of projects.”

In India, a few companies are delivering BIM services to the global sector, but they are being delivered only through subcontracts. Things should happen way beyond this, like adopting BIM for the complete project lifecycle. Currently, in India, the benefits of BIM are restricted to design and not carried forward to construction and FM.

Amarnath says, “Most of the time clients are confused because they have to pay more for the design but they are not aware how to actually use BIM during construction and FM. Hence clients hesitate in adopting this.”

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Stronger policies required

Things need to improve at the policy level for better adoption. Most of the policymakers or owners are not aware of BIM or even if they know, they don’t know what to expect out of it. Unless we have a top-down model, adoption would remain an issue. Amarnath adds, “If we consider the national building code there is a rule that BIM must be used in construction, but it is not clear, so we need to have guidelines in India to have clear-cut details about what kind of BIM needs to be delivered and what should the client expect out of the project.” India can learn from countries like Spain, where two ministries are working on implementing BIM in their job.

There is no doubt that the situation is not so favorable for BIM adoption in India. But, with time, things will look up. The benefits of adopting BIM in construction cannot be denied and thus the adoption will not stay denied for long.