Contractors in charge of government housing projects have been advised to embrace new technologies in order to cut costs and timelines. Principal Secretary for State Department of Public Works, Professor Paul Maringa made the remark at Lugari Diploma Teachers College where he inspected the ongoing construction of administration and tuition blocks and a male’s hostel.
Maringa asked contractors to adopt the Expanded Polystyrene Panel (EPS) that was introduced by the National Housing Corporation (NHC), insisting the new technology was efficient and cost effective.
“Expanded Polystyrene Panel uses cheaper materials compared to conventional stones and yet strong enough to withstand bullet and grenade attacks,” observed Maringa.
The PS asked the Board of Management (BoM) of the college to urgently explore the possibility of embracing the EPS technology in order to save on costs and reduce the period.
“This being a new college, we don’t want to keep potential students waiting outside for long due to inadequate space for learning, when the new technology offers the best alternative to the challenge,” stated Maringa who is an architecture by profession.
Prof Maringa told two contractors, Winam and Blue Nile, working at the institution that besides return on capital invested, building houses using the EPS panels takes less time compared to using conventional materials such as stones.
The PS urged the local political wing to closely work with the college BoM to ensure quick and sound decisions, especially on efficiency and cost effectiveness of government-funded projects.
The projects are funded by the national treasury at an initial budget of Sh.40 million.
“The government will set aside an additional budget of Sh.63 million for the houses to be completed,” the PS added who expressed his satisfaction over the quality of workmanship at the site. According to the PS, the contractors have so far done 10 percent of the work.
Prof Maringa at the same time urged all contractors working on government projects to respect the 30 percent gender rule by employing women for both professional and unprofessional duties.
“As a department we do not want pay lip service to matters of policy,”
he disclosed.
The PS and his team were hosted by the institution’s Principal, Mrs. Anne Esese, members of the management board and Lugari Sub County Education Director, Mr. Francis Shikanda.
In an attempt to address the growing demand and ensure large scale production of affordable decent houses to Kenyans, the NHC conducted research on different low-cost housing alternatives before it finally identified the EPS panels.
The EPS technology had already been successfully implemented countries such as Mexico, Britain, Qatar, Nigeria, Mozambique and USA.
NHC then commissioned a feasibility study to analyse the technical, commercial and economical visibility of establishing a factory that would produce the EPS panels for use in the construction of buildings in the country.
The national government through NHC eventually establishment the EPS Factory at Mlolongo area, Mavoko of Machakos County in May 2012, which is at a cost of close to Sh.1billion.
The Factory has an annual production capacity of 126,720 panels, which translates to 460,800 square metre of construction materials annually.