Faster Adoption of BIM in Infrastructure Projects

Project implementation in India is witnessing a paradigm shift in technology. The

industry is looking at digital solutions for faster implementation and monitoring of
infrastructure projects to eliminate cost and time overruns. The Building Information
Modeling (BIM) technology plays a crucial role and is gaining acceptance in the
country owing to its multifold benefits. Key successful examples include Navi
Mumbai International Airport, Nagpur Metro, Statue of Unity, etc.
Industry players are turning to BIM for improving project delivery and lifecycle
performance. While the technology is mostly being deployed at the planning and
design phase, there are discussions within the government and industry to fully
leverage BIM throughout a project lifecycle. Being software agnostic, availability of a
wide variety of options ranging from basic open-source BIM software to highly
advanced and customized applications, increasingly organizations are looking
forward to integration of BIM with enterprise resource planning and other project
management tools.
It is estimated that about 30% of global BIM works are delivered by being outsourced
to KPOs in India. Clearly, there is no dearth of BIM professionals in the country. Yet,
BIM adoption has been sporadic. Officials not understanding the complexities,
perceived lack of access to skilled BIM professionals for Indian projects, and high
cost of propriety software are often cited as key hinderances to widespread adoption
of the technology.
However, to meet the construction targets under the INR 111 trillion-worth National
Infrastructure Pipeline, BIM is more of a necessity than a choice. It is understood that
government projects, organizations and implementation agencies will have to lead
way from the front by adopting the concept and pushing the agenda through contract
enforcement.
Policy level interventions are being explored, to streamline and improve better
preparedness for BIM adoption and implementation, particularly in large
infrastructure projects.
NITI Aayog is has agreed to play the role of an anchor, steer sporadic efforts into a
more mainstream organized roadmap offering a platform to ensure faster adoption of
BIM. Efforts are underway to lay a strong foundation of public leadership,
communicate vision and foster communities, grow industry capacity, and build a
common collaborative framework to ensure BIM adoption.
In line with above, a focused stakeholder interaction is being organized to better
understand the success stories and challenges being faced by implementation
agencies in BIM adoption. The interaction will be in the form of a hybrid (virtual/in-
person) and moderated discussion/interaction.
Guiding questions for the stakeholder interaction
During the discussion, following questions/topics will be addressed:
 Is your organization utilizing BIM in any part of the lifecycle (conceptualization,
planning, implementation /construction, operations, and maintenance) of
infrastructure projects? - Yes
 If yes, what level of complexity of BIM is being deployed in terms of 3D/4D/5D
modelling and project management tools? Is it for all infrastructure projects or
for select projects only? – 3D Only and 4D will be implemented in the
current year.
 What benefits of BIM can be succinctly outlined based on your experience of
implementing it in government infrastructure projects? -
 What is the average cost of implementing BIM in your projects as a
percentage of project cost? Do the accrued cost and time benefits offset BIM
implementation challenges with due consideration to readiness of
procurement and supply-chain in BIM adoption?
 What are the key challenges being faced by your organization in
implementing BIM for all infrastructure projects (legal, technical, financial,
capacity, resources, technology, managerial, conceptual, lack of
standardization, software, interoperability etc.)? Please elaborate.
 What regulatory measures are needed to address these challenges? Should
all infrastructure construction contracts mandate the use of BIM?
 Is BIM implementation in your projects being undertaken through inhouse
expertise, or outsourced to consulting and contracting firms?
 What is the level of understanding of BIM concepts within your organization to
facilitate correct decision making for engaging the right BIM concept,
technology, and service provider for a project?
 Is your organization ready for BIM adoption and integration to its Enterprise
Resource Planning system in terms of legal, contractual, financial, technical,
human resource, etc.
 What capacities are required to be developed in your team, organization, and
service providers/contractors to ensure BIM adoption?
 Which infrastructure sectors should make BIM mandatory and what should be
the threshold of project size?
 Are your vendors and downstream/ upstream service providers ready and
capable of implementing BIM?
 What measures need to be undertaken to make MSMEs and smaller players
adopt and adapt their processes in sync with BIM?
 What policy/programmjmce level support do you envisage from the
Government of India to facilitate faster BIM adoption in Infrastructure sector.