Passing Engineers bill need of the hour: ACCEI

Updated on: Wednesday, August 25, 2010

An organisation representing civil engineers has sought the early passage of the Engineer's bill to streamline and regulate the engineering profession, enhance quality of professionals and infuse a level of accountability and standardisation.

A draft of the bill chalked out in 2003 was now under final review. The bill drafted by the Engineering Council of India and supported by the Association of Consulting Civil Engineers India (ACCE) is pending before the HRD ministry, M U Aswath, Secretary General, ACCEI, said.

"Passing the Engineers Bill is the need of the hour" Ranganath D, Chairman, Byelaw Committee, ACCEI, which is celebrating its silver jubilee this year, said.

The bill envisages obligatory registration or certification of professional engineers and aims to standardise the Indian engineers globally and create certified quality standards.

The implications of passing the bill would mean that no engineer without the prescribed qualification could enter the field and take up projects. It would define who an
engineer is and also ensure that the engineer is trained and abreast of the latest technology, a requisite for licence renewal, Ajit Sabnis, Chairman, Silver Jubilee Committee, said.

Passing of such a bill would ensure that without the required certification none could take up work.

Such a bill could avert disasters like the Carlton Tower fire tragedy in February in Bangalore which claimed nine lives and other building mishaps as it would in a way help ensure regulation and monitoring of activities and infuse accountability, Sabnis said.

The passing of the bill would also ensure that Indians were on par with the international engineering community, Aswath said.It would help Indian construction industry get prepared to be part of the Washington Accord and thereby get recognition for Indian engineers.

The accord, entitles signatories to be part of overseas projects funded by global financial agencies. Indian engineers at present cannot take up transborder projects
funded through external funds as it was not a signatory to the Accord.

Currently, Sabnis said, the industry was highly disorganised.

The biggest challenge before the industry is to ensure that engineers were trained and abreast of modern technology and such a training percolated below, Sabnis said.

"Technology is the driver of growth and technology is moving very fast.There is a huge gap between practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge acquired in
institutions", Sabnis said.

There was a need to bridge this gap and to ensure that the 6000 engineers being churned in Karnataka and similar numbers in other states were well equipped to cater to the changing demands by the industry, he said.

"The challenge is to ensure a balance between aesthetics, economics and utility", Sabnis said.

Another challenge lay in use of new-generation material for construction.Currently, he said a hue and cry was being made over depleting natural resources and over mining.But the challenge lay in finding an alternative material which was suitable, he said.

"There is also a need for self-regulation among the engineering community to avert disasters. Adhering to safety norms is vital. Fast tracking of projects without heeding to safety parameters to meet early deadlines could prove dangerous," Aswath said.

Supporting his views, Sabnis said there is need to place a self-regulatory mechanism in place.

According to Ranganath, tweaking of policies are also important.Currently it was not compulsory to submit structural drawings for below 24 metres building, making almost 80-90 percent of the buildings out of the ambit. It was necessary to include all buildings both low and high rise under the ambit to prevent disasters, he said.

The Bangalore-headquartered ACCE has 14 centres all over the country. Its work comprises dissemination of training and also ensuring technological updates to organisation members and working in tandem with educational bodies for the purpose.

The ACCE will hold a convention on August 27 and 28, tracing its journey of growth and that of the engineering industry.

Passing Engineers bill need of the hour: ACCEI

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