Sustainable practices: a study in the context of construction project under Public Works Department (PWD).

Abstract

Public Works Department (PWD), under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, is the pioneer in construction arena of Bangladesh. Over about two centuries, PWD could successfully set the trend and standard in the country's infrastructure development. Sustainability is a major concern of Bangladesh Government nowadays. Similarly, PWD has been trying to incorporate the sustainability issues in their procurement activities, construction projects as well as their mission and vision. In order to prepare this report, some of the Executive Engineers and Sub-Divisional Engineers had been contacted who are directly working in field level. From them, the recent sustainability practices being done in the construction projects have been identified and discussed. Few data of both ongoing and finished projects in Dhaka District have been used in this report. The officers shared the present scenario in filed level. All of them shared an opinion like that: sustainable policy considers people, planet and profit, whereas the traditional policy focus on cost minimization; which are completely contradictory. So before implementing sustainable policy the most important factor is the proper and true concept of sustainability through the whole supply chain. In short, in can be said that sustainability is a strategic issue. To implement this issue in field work, it needs proper plan, skilled manpower, culture and mindset.