From the architect's dream and the engineer's endeavor to final satisfaction of user, construction represents many of our civilisation's noblest achievements. Construction is as old as history. Builders from history have left lot many structural wonders for us. Amongst the classics of the past may be mentioned the pyramids of Egypt, Taj Mahal, Temples of Konark, Mohan-Ja-Daros, and China's Great Wall. The construction Indus have laid down the physical and technological foundations upon which the modem civilisation has developed. It envelops a very large canvas of human activities, from huts to skyscrapers, from cartroutes to super express highways, from culverts to multispan multilane flyovers, from stop bunds to Aswan and Bakhra Nangals, from chopals to stadiums, from village shops to super markets large industrial complexes, refineries and fertilizer's plants, from observation posts high Himalayas to off-shore drilling platforms in deep seas. There is no aspect of human life and civilization, upon which the construction does not have a profound influence, not only spanning physical spaces but also spanning hearts, by bringing people together in their social, cultural, political, recreational and economic endeavours. For better or worse, the construction is the most pervasive factor in our life.
Construction plays a pivotal role in growth of economy as a basic infrastructure facility. An increase in the level of construction activity will increase the GDM and have positive influence on employment, and public income. Any budgetary squeeze on construction will reduce the construction activity and after a time lag, reflect with decreased GDP and slowing down the economic growth. Any change in the level of construction output will have a great corresponding effect on the country's economy as a whole. Backward linkage also will have a widespread influence as much of the construction inputs in the form of raw, semi-processed and processed material, e.g. aggregate, bricks, cement, steel etc., is provided by relatively labour intensive domestic vendors and basic industries. Forward linkages will affect almost all sectors of economy. These linkages and high value addition to output exhibit that construction provides a substantive growth stimulus to every sector of economy. As per a report (CIDC-1997) to achieve an increase of GDP from 5.8% in 1996-97 to about 8% by 2004-05, the investment requirement in construction sector is about Rs. 8 trillion (about Rs. 800,000 crores) at 1995-96 price level. If as inflation rate of 8% is acounted for, this requirement will be of the order of Rs. 27 trillion. For achieving this task, both development and regulation issues need urgent attention to evolve an accepted long-term approach. Throughout the world, construction is a leading industry in all market economies. It is the first indicator of health of the economy. Its acceleration starts a buoyant economic growth and vice-versa. Korea, Taiwan and Hongkong, have used construction sector to lift themselves into vibrant economies. IMalaysia and China are using the same strategy, by rebuilding their cities and highways etc. to become major players in global economy.
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