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CONSTRUCTION ALTERNATIVES 1. In our effort to choose construction alternatives for low cost rural applications, we considered following parameters: 1) Cost 2) Capital cost 3) Suitability for training of unskilled boys 4) Amenability for quality check and standardisation. 5) Adequate labour component. The different alternatives were to be evaluated on the above criteria, after in-use experience had proved their usefulness. Most of the alternatives are still in the development /in test stage and only broad indications are available. 2. Soil based Products: Soil-Block: Soil blocks of 300x140x100 mm. by compacting with ASTRAM have been tried. Productivity as also quality was not as per-target (175-200 for 3M/8 hrs). Cost needs to he brought down by avoiding transport of clay. Soil-cement blocks: Soil cement blocks with 5% cement were prepared by using hand moulding process. About 6000 blocks of 300x200x100 have been used. Quality control was difficult. Compacting machine is to be tried. Rural Development Through Education System 244 - --
