L&T 3D printing a post office in Bengaluru

Larsen & Toubro Construction on Tuesday presented a preliminary glimpse of the country’s first 3D printed post office set to come up in Bengaluru within a month’s time. The 1,000 square feet facility at Cambridge Layout in Ulsoor comes at a cost of Rs 23 lakh.

As opposed to 6-8 months and 30-40 men required in the conventional process of construction for such a facility, the 3D printing technology requires only 5 men and a total of 45 days, L&T officials revealed at the press meet. Furthermore, pollution levels come down by 50%, while the concrete mix used - M30 - will offer six times more strength, they added.

Using a robotic printer sourced from Finland’s 3D construction printing solutions provider Cobod, the technology involves deposition of concrete layer-by-layer in accordance with a 3D model drawing input.

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Pleased with the development, biopharmaceutical giant Biocon’s chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw took to Twitter to express her aspirations. “Country’s first 3D-printed post office coming up in Bengaluru - hope this is the shape of things to come!!,” she wrote.

Though the 3D printed facility in Ulsoor comes at a cost equivalent to conventionally constructed structure, economies of scale with greater number of projects can lower the cost of 3D printed constructions significantly, another L&T official informed.

Choosing home ground to kickstart the company’s commercial journey into 3D concrete printing, the multinational developer is looking at affordable housing up to G+3 floors, villas, military barracks, single-floor schools, post offices and factories as entry points into the market.

Underlining his outlook on higher acceptability and adoption of 3D printing for construction in India, M V Satish, whole-time director and senior executive vice president at L&T Construction for buildings said -“It will pick up. I think it will take anywhere around 5-6 years.”