Palaj, Gandhinagar: Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) is holding a workshop on March 14 and 15, 2019 on Confined Masonry (CM) technology and its implementation in India and Nepal. More than 20 participants from India and Nepal, including leading academics, government officials, and engineers, are expected to attend the workshop.

The workshop is being held with the following main objectives: i) to share global initiatives related to CM construction, ii) to share experience regarding the research and code development regarding CM construction in India, and iii) to share Nepal initiatives towards introducing CM construction.

There is an interest in introducing CM technology in Nepal for rebuilding after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake (magnitude 7.7) which caused damage or collapse of more than 600,000 buildings in the country. CM technology is a cost-effective and seismically safe alternative to reinforced concrete construction technology for low- to medium-rise buildings. IIT Gandhinagar campus features the first large-scale application of CM construction in India. Faculty and staff housing and student hostels have been constructed using CM technology.

The workshop has been coordinated by Dr Svetlana Brzev, Visiting Professor, IITGN. Prof Sudhir Jain, Director, IITGN said, “We are pleased to share our experience regarding the application of CM technology on IITGN Campus project with the colleagues from Nepal, and are hoping that CM is going to be widely used in seismically-prone regions of India and Nepal