PRESS RELEASE 

New Delhi, April 13^th, 2004

In view of the fast depleting forest cover and consequent environmental degradation, the Govt. of India have decided to ban the use of hard timbers in all constructions of CPWD.  The Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC), Government of India, as its mandate to develop waste-based, environment friendly & cost-effective housing technologies, has developed a series of alternate building materials and substitutes for timber. The Indian Plywood Industries Research & Training Institute (IPIRTI) has done considerable work in promotion of bamboo based components.
 

The two institutions has entered into an MOU to consider and take up nation wide projects for transferring the bamboo based technologies such as Bamboo Mat Board, Bamboo Mat Veneer Composite, Bamboo Mat Corrugated Sheet, Bamboo Wood and Bamboo Housing Systems etc. The MoU envisages large scale promotion, manufacture and application of bamboo based technologies in order to preserve the valuable forest wealth. Further the aim is to provide large scale employment and creation of entrepreneurship amongst unemployed youth specially women in rural and urban areas.

 

BMTPC will undertake necessary steps to popularise and facilitate marketing of bamboo based technologies developed by IPIRTI among the construction agencies and end-user organisations through its network of associates and through its publications and newsletters, where IPIRTI will provide necessary assistance to the entrepreneurs and / or construction agencies in the training of their personnel and supply of all relevant drawings and technical documentation / data / working manuals for setting up and running the production units.

The MoU was signed between two institutions namely “BMTPC and  IPIRTI” on 13th April 2004 at a simple ceremony in New Delhi. During the occasion Dr. C. N. Pandey, Director IPIRTI assured full cooperation in meeting the desired goals set by the two institutions under the MoU.

Shri D.B.N. Rao, Director General BMTPC was categorical in his observation that in view of the depleting forest cover and increasing environmental degradation, the construction sector has no option except to resort to waste-based and plantation timber based products such as Bamboo for large scale application specially in housing development.