The discriminatory outdated tender notices and one-sided contract documents with personality oriented unscientific subjective quality controls should be immediately scraped. It is common knowledge that these conventional systems have very successfully banned the introduction of new building materials, even though they are proven to be of better quality than those in use now.
Due to the subjective method of quality controls and payment for works done purely according to the whims and fancies of the officers in charge of the work and that too at the lowest levels such as Deputy Engineers and Overseers, a major change is unlikely in the short term. Hence, determined efforts are needed to stop this disastrous anti-social, anti-national and anti-technology system immediately, as it is now illegal and totally against the public interest.
If innovative steps are not taken and stringent policy measures implemented in a time bound manner, there will not be any progress or success in the creation of ample social mass housing units and the eradication of slums and perhaps some cities with large slums in Kerala will have to be abandoned. This will be a catastrophe disaster of the worst order for the small state, the country as a whole and the fellow citizens.
Real estate in Kerala is witnessing major developments in spite of the many attendant problems. While on the one hand there is much criticism with respect to the quality of the final output in the work undertaken by the contractors and also the way in which tenders are called and given, on the other hand, the private builders are making things happen without any help from the government agencies. Thus, there is a building boom and it has created many employment opportunities. The skilled construction labor never had it so good as in recent times. The construction wages have also gone up phenomenally.
