Crawling Infra Great Opportunity

It isawell known fact thatRome was not built in a day. It took hundreds of strong men and several years to construct its mammoth and impressive structures. However, it took just one person to envision the city. Working on the same lines, a civil engineer is responsible for planning, development and construction of cities. Adding to the demand of such professionals is the rapid growth of infrastructure in the country.

According to Brand Marketing India Pvt. Ltd. (BMI) there are more than US$270 billion worth of projects-under construction or in the pipeline-in India's infrastructure sector. Also, the investment in infrastructure is likely to rise from 5.15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) during the Tenth Five Year Plan period (2002-07) to about 7.55 per cent during the Eleventh FiveYear Plan (2007-12). D. N. Singh, professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay says, "Government is pumping in cash in all spheres of infrastructural development. Private players are also investing and it is all set to grow many folds. However, dearth of civil engineershaspropelledtheappointmentof outsourced professionals. For instance, for manyof our national projects engineers from Thailand and Malaysia are recruited." He adds that currently subjects such as forensic engineering and engineering law are the hot favourites. "Public health engineering and environmental engineering are also new concepts that have gained much popularity among students," says Singh.

The nature of work of civil engineers, being inter-disciplinary requires working together with people from different fields such as architecture and managers. There is growing demand for civil engineers with a higher degree of specialisation. A post graduate degree (M.Tech.) can be an option if students want to specialise or research (Ph.D) in the same. 

"There are about 40 odd institutions that need faculty. Civil engineering is like the field of medicine where experience and expertise are required. Many consulting firms also want experts," adds Singh. Most civil engineers are being lapped up immediately post graduation-a trend that is fast catching up-due to growth in infrastructure. They can start with anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh per month. But remuneration also depends on expertise, more the experience, larger the package.