prefabricated housing

Chandi technology delights people of Thar

In the treeless desert of Tharparkar the scene is the Civil Hospital of Mithi. At the entrance everyone (both rich and poor) stops to stare at a 25×35 ft. silver structure glittering in the hot sun. They have never seen a Chandi Ghar (a product of Karachi) before. As they enter they are pleasantly surprised to find it cool despite the absence of fans and air conditioners.

The Chandi Ghar Rest house, a prefabricated structure was completed in five days by an NGO Gul Bahao on the 12th of April. It is a gift from the middle class civil society of Karachi for the people of Thar. City School Darakshan Campus, Foundation Public School and Rotary Club Defence are the apparent donors of the rest house but silent donors run into hundreds. These include professionals, teachers, businessmen as well as companies who give their commercially viable wastage for free.

The rest house is being used since the day the roof was put in. it is mainly used by the relatives of patients who come to the hospital. A plus point of the structure is its potential to remain clean as the entire structure is made of plastic. There is a total absence of mud or cement. Its sheer novelty is attracting people from far and wide who are now interested in buying this technology to make homes,madrassas,warehouses etc.

In the meantime,the CEO of Gul Bahao has appealed to both the provincial and federal government, Karachi’s businessmen and entrepreneurs to support the Chandi technology which has costed crores of rupees to develop and decades to evolve. Referring to the governments Youth loan program Nargis Latif said that the Chandi technology ( which uses plastic factory waste to make houses,water reservoirs, furniture and rugs) can become a part of the scheme. The best part is that very little investment is required while the market potential is enormous!

Prefabricated housing

For the last several years, it has been observed that new kinds of challenges spring up during the sacred month of Ramazan. Yesterday, while the city was being battered with rain Gul Bahao’s team under the supervision of its technical chief D. Alim was putting final touches to its latest innovation of prefabricated roofing.

Till the writing of this piece, the Environment Museum stands out on main Rashid Minhas Road, its silver facade glittering in the sun, while not a drop of rain water has entered its 20ft x 40ft hall, despite record breaking rain.

Talking to the press Nargis Latif of Gul Bahao claimed that the organization’s Environment Museum which was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor of Karachi University on 5th June has all the solutions for disaster management as well as to preempt disasters, the city witnessed during the heavy rainfall.

Gul Bahao has truly gone into the nitti gritty of waste management which is the root cause of the flooding of the city’s roads. Nargis said that at the inauguration of the Environment museum she had warned of “Karachi being drowned in gutter water but nobody listened, she lamented.

Talking about Gul Bahao’s latest innovations, the managing trustee of Gul Bahao said rain proof roof has been made for single storied Chandi Ghars using light weight blocks made from waste (but clean) thermo- pole pieces arranged in the form of slopes. The important aspect of this is that this double roofing can be put in a matter of hours.

During the holy month of Ramazan another experiment is being made to make water proof tarpaulins. This has two advantages

Raw material is plastic waste which would otherwise enter the sewerage system and block it
It is cheap so that the poorest of the poor can afford it in times of inclement weather.

Another innovation thrown up by Gul Bahao during heavy rains is for low lying areas. This is especially useful for factory owners who would like to save their millions of rupees worth of goods from being submerged in rain water. These are 10-20 kgs heavy “Wastic Blocks” which can form a platform in a few minutes.

Nargis Latif said that the museum is open to all traders, manufacturers, policy makers, scientists and professionals. She said the projects on display at the museum should be especially attractive for businessmen as these require very little investment but whose profits could be immense both money wise as well as for handling and preempting natural disasters.

Concluding, Gul Bahao has appealed to the incumbent President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussein to visit Pakistan’s Environment Museum which has taken 20 years to emerge at a cost of more than 8 crores.

Prefabricated modular housing for flood affectees

Gul Bahao has discovered a novel way of providing houses for flood affectees. For the last several months it has been collecting recyclable waste from schools, universities and factories. The waste has two components, one that is sold to fetch hard cash and the other used in making Chandi Ghar for as little as Rupees 25,000. Tons of aluminum foils are coming out from factories in the form of clean waste which are being used to make Wastic blocks (size 6 x 17 x 21) a major component of the Chandi Ghar.

After putting up these pre-fabs in Razzakabad and Thatta for the flood affectees, Gul Bahao is now set to put up a small village in an area close to Mandi Bahauddin, Bhakkar in district Muzaffargarh. The Chandi Ghars are being financed by a CBO of the area called Faizan while the transportation costs will be borne by Gul Bahao. In the beginning, 10 houses are being put up on a trial basis.

The CBO has promised to give a befitting welcome to the world’s first Chandi Ghar. Here it may be remembered that the Chandi Ghar is an innovation “made in Pakistan” and having several advantages over the conventional housing materials like portability, cost effectiveness, strong against the elements. Being modular, the blocks can be made alternatively into beds, sofas. Gul Bahao plans to put up its model village before the end of this year.

Chandi Ghar braves the storm

In yet another vindication of Gul Bahao’s research program it was reported by Mohammad Ali Shah, Chairman of Fisher folk Forum that the Chandi Ghar put up by Gul Baho at Ibrahim Hyderi a couple of months ago has stood up to the devastating cyclone hitting the coast and is as good as it was first made. The accompanying photograph shows the Chandi Ghar put up on the roof of the Sachal Hall located in Ibrahim Hyderi.

While several of these pre-fabricated structures were sent to Mansehra at the time of the earthquake, the one at Ibrahim Hyderi is the first one to have been sold to any party in Karachi. This is not to say that the Chandi Ghar is totally new to Karachi, thousands if not lacs of people have seen or read about it through the media as well as live in exhibitions held at the following:

SITE Stadium
Twice at Expo Centre
On the Super Highway
Regent Plaza

as well as PCSIR exhibitions, as well as under the NIPA bridge in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. What is the Chandi Ghar? The brochure describing it says it is made up of used but clean plastic waste like shopping bags to form what is called Wastic Blocks, an alternative to concrete blocks. The second and more easily available component of the pre-fabricated structure is the Pana-flex Panel, again this uses used flexed material and cardboard. Depending on the workmanship this pre-fabricated house is strong against storms, water, insects, fire etc. It is insulated against extreme temperatures, it is easy to put up, taking only a few hours and easy to dismantle and extremely cost effective. The room shown in the photograph costs as little as rupees 15,000, above all it is extremely good looking so that this innovation may be equally attractive to both the rich and the poor

Recently Nargis Latif approached the director TDAP (formerly Export Promotion Bureau) Mr Nusrat Iqbal Jamshed and was able to convince him of the importance of the Chandi Ghar in the local industry. In her written proposal Nargis Latif spelled out the advantages of this new technology which gives it an edge over other building materials and can be used in the following

For relief work (earthquakes,tsunami and other natural disasters)
During Hajj, there is a huge potential for temporary houses
For military purposes, in war games or real life battles, temporary shelter for guards and police men
For mining companies/ oil drilling companies
For medical camps
Tourism industry on the coast as well as in the mountainous areas
For research work carried out over inhospitable terrain
For camps in big cities on Prime land to be used as election camp, mobile schools, advertising purposes etc
The blocks are modular so they can be used alternatively as beds, swimming pools or as water tanks

Being highly impressed by Nargis Latif’s presentation, Mr Jamshed asked her to have the Chandi Ghar patented as this would ensure that is became the intellectual property of Gul Bahao. To which Nargis replied that she would rather that the credit should go to the people of Karachi who have put in their labor, money and moral support. In fact she said that Gul Bahao has a number of other innovations to its credit which all lumped together are called Karachi’s Gift to The World

In the meantime, Gul Bahao has planned to gear up its work and start the world’s first Chandi Ghar Plant in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. It has at the same time appealed to the people to make the plant a success by giving interest free loans or funds.