Blueprints—Blue Cheese or Blue Murder or Blue Blood?

What’s common between the Tower of Wanaka in New Zealand and the Tower of Suurhusen in Germany? It’s not that they are lopsided. It’s not even about that being deliberately so. It’s all related to the bragging-rights they claimed against a building that turned out tilted, and by mistake. We all know the story of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Thanks to a miscalculation about a soft sub-soil, this building started leaning as soon as the construction began. From interruptions due to battles, to use of lead counterweights, to the design of upper floors, to the employment of cables, to the number of bells – a lot has been faced and tried – specially by engineers and designers – to correct the tilt and stop the tower from collapsing. Thankfully, this tilt has become its unique attraction, thus, inviting competition from some towers later (which, deliberately, tried to be lopsided).

Digital replicas can help immensely in rescue operations as one can see the layout and interplay of spaces and people in one shot.

Not every building turns out that lucky. Mistakes – at the design desk – cannot just result in deadlines, budgets and efforts tilting in the wrong direction; but they can also cause accidents, collapses and reputation-demolition. In the last two decades, technology has come to the rescue of designers, engineers and builders. From CAD to CAM to PLM and now to BIM (Building Information Modeling) and Digital Twins – there has been a lot of help and acuity available for the eyes, ears, hands and shoulders of people who ‘build’. Mega projects continue to rise and try to balance their stability in the soft soils of sustainability, safety, disaster management, ROI and time-management. Which way is technology leaning now? Alok Sharma, Director, Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), Autodesk India & SAARC shows us a not-so-rough sketch.

You have a strong PSU presence and play. What’s different about them vs. other enterprises in the technology landscape? What’s good and what’s not so good (or different) about them?

Their speed of execution—in comparison to others—is sometimes slow. Their adoption curves are also different. But the sheer scale of public vis a vis private sector stands out in a big way. Some estimates tell that 70 per cent of infrastructure in India is yet to be built. Change management is a challenge. But we have seen pockets and departments that are swift and open with technology leaps. Like Railways, Delhi Metro, Airports Authority of India, Railways redevelopment projects etc.

What are their pain-points? How much do they struggle with time/scope/cost-creeps?

Two major ones. First is related to delays. Many projects are not built on time. There are budget over-runs. When we zoom in on delays, they are of two types. First is related to processes. Second is about not designing in advance and with planning. That’s where technology comes in. More so with large infra projects and with the need for details. One can pre-empt a lot of issues and avoid surprises at the construction stages by designing smartly. In fact, in many cases, the design happens after the project plan. We have seen how much designing well helps.

Sometimes, safety, sustainability, speed and cost-control can appear as conflicting goals. That’s where we come in.

How? Can you expand that a bit?

In some cases, we were able to save 35 per cent of time with good design and visualisation. Also, doing construction, collaboration can make or break a lot of things. BIM can give a single source of truth to various stakeholders. They don’t have to deal with multiple sets of drawings. Our Common Data Environment helps there. Operations become easy when it’s an end-to-end digital process. Imagine the issues one can solve with the digital replica of an airport which can run into so many kilometres in terms of scale, otherwise. It is so tough to deal with these issues in a physical way.

Let’s spend a minute on the word collaboration. Is that easy to wield with the level of heterogeneity and lack of digital literacy in the long tail of projects?

We, as a company, believe in open access. We have given free access and we work across platforms. Our tools can be seen in readable file formats. We also believe in equal access for future generations. We work on education and training at various levels in the education space. On the ground level, a contractor can access design on his/her mobile. Or a guard can be spared the task of a manual entry of materials coming on a truck. Digitalisation should be democratic and we work strongly on that aspect.

How does this translate for the financial desk? Savings, ROI and other tangible impact?

As per some recent estimates, BIM has delivered up to 43 per cent improvements in productivity, 256 days in schedule acceleration, and millions of dollars in lifecycle cost savings across water, energy, roads, railways, and airport projects. I can also cite some data from our BIM report. Imagine ₹111.93 crore cost savings per road project enabled by BIM-led construction sequencing, real-time monitoring, and material efficiency—leading to a 32.6 per cent design duration reduction and a 36.5 per cent productivity gain. There were also 256 days saved in water infrastructure projects, ₹34.38 crore saved per energy project, and ₹172.83 crore saved in large-scale airport projects. Also, 560 hours of workforce time was saved in rail projects wherein BIM integration led to 80-day construction savings, 26 per cent productivity boost, and minimised disruptions through data-driven maintenance planning.

What’s India like? What’s different about you vs. Dassault Systems or Siemens because now digital twins, AI etc. are becoming common denominators?

The scale of projects in India is massive. We have done, and are doing, a lot of work in the Railways, metro projects, airport terminals. A lot of technology use is moving from CAD to BIM. BIM is not just software. It covers processes and people. In India, we are putting a lot of efforts in adoption. We are working on multiple fronts. Like education. Like helping customers move up the chain and beyond CAD. Like blending sustainability and cost-control. Like, having country-kits and localisation of codes (as seen in case of roads or a CPWD library of components). Like helping government processes aware about BIM.

Our digital reconstruction supported faster, more precise restoration efforts, helping bring the Notre Dame cathedral back to life in record time.

How, and how much, do good design and digital planning help in elevating safety and sustainability of buildings. Specially with corruption? And also with lack of control on scope 2 and 3 emissions?

Sometimes, safety, sustainability, speed and cost-control can appear as conflicting goals. That’s where we come in. One does not have to compromise one aspect for the other. Corruption at the information level (not of mindset or intent) can be addressed with these tools. We can help with designs that help in optimising the use of materials like steel and cement. AI-based carbon analytics, load checks, augmentation, replication etc. – all help in minimising carbon footprint. For example, once when we helped to design a partition for Airbus, we cut down the weight down by 30 per cent. Now, this not only helps in reducing fuel usage but also has commercial advantages.

Are these digital designs giving rise to new red-tape, new blind spots and deaf spots?

We have not faced any. Specially with the departments we have worked with. Initiating change management can take some time—given the heavy legacy presence. Well-collated Data islands—with single point visibility and availability—solve a lot of issues too.

The world has witnessed a new level of accidentsand disasters in the last few months. Can buildings and projects be ready and robust enough for those surprises?

This reminds me of an accident in Paris and a subsequent reconstruction work – Notre Dame Cathedral. Autodesk contributed to the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral by providing a 3D building information model (BIM), developed using scans, photogrammetry, and drone footage. This digital reconstruction supported faster, more precise restoration efforts, helping bring the cathedral back to life in record time.

Things become so fast and easy with digital replicas now. But there is one more advantage—digital replicas can help immensely in rescue operations as one can see the layout and interplay of spaces and people in one shot. Natural disasters are not in human control. But bouncing back is. And so is planning for readiness. Our Infraworks Flood Analysis can help with useful data before the flood happens. Simulation helps too.

As seen with Fusion API etc. – what can you share about interoperability in CAD-CAM space?

Our service partners specialise in APIs. Like our tools can talk to SAP system and APIs help the data move back and forth easily, letting existing and CAD systems talk to each other.

Which one is your favourite mega project, so far?

Many. But Bangalore T2 and Delhi Metro top my mind. So does the Statue of Unity.

Any more projects that can you illustrate to show BIM’s evolution and impact?

There is the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) one – it partnered with Autodesk to improve coordination, minimise rework, and enable seamless multi-stakeholder collaboration using Autodesk Construction Cloud. The adoption of cloud-based BIM workflows enhanced efficiency and sustainability by integrating design, construction, and operations. Also, Autodesk Tandem and Autodesk Construction Cloud were instrumental in the digital twin implementation at Neilsoft campus.

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in