RICS - Vestian Study highlights need to raise safety & security standards of IT Parks in India

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Vestian Global Workplace Services have released a PAN India in-depth study ’Assessment of IT campus environments’.

The study is an effort to evaluate the working environment of IT campuses in the country and enlighten the sector on the changing dynamics of workplace atmosphere to improve operational performance as well as provide future trends.

The broad objectives of the Study includes evaluating existing IT Campuses on parameters such as basic amenities, planning highlights, safety & security, operations & maintenance (O&M) and innovation; establishing occupier preference levels and investigating economic performance. This data was collected across 250+ points and 15 renowned IT/ITes campuses across India willingly participating in this first of a kind initiative.

On this occasion, Sachin Sandhir, Managing Director, RICS South Asia said, “As the leading global body for real estate and construction, we are about advancing best practice standards which guarantee consistency for clients in multiple markets. This report is an endeavor to educate the developers and occupiers in IT/ITES space to work towards the best workplace environment matching global standards. Safety standards and disaster preparedness are key issues that we are raising at a global level, by promoting a disaster management protocol as well as global standards on strategic facilities management (FM). To implement high standards, the skills of the professionals who are driving corporate real estate as well as facilities management will also need to be enhanced and RICS hopes to contribute in this area. Given that commercial real estate is a heavy user of energy, and the gap between power demanded and consumed by tenants (as demonstrated by this study), post occupancy evaluation at periodic intervals is the need of the hour.”

Speaking at the launch of the report, Shrinivas Rao, CEO-Asia Pacific, Vestian Global said, “India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world; with services sector leading the growth. By 2015, IT and ITes sector is expected to contribute 7% to India’s GDP. Considering 70-75% of the total real estate absorption is by this sector, we decided to review the current workplace environment and evaluate where we stand vis a vis the global standards. The idea was to put forward a comprehensive report which looks at the overall picture and identifies areas which need to be improved upon. We hope that with this effort we can help educate the various stakeholders involved; and contribute at each and every step of the life cycle of the development. We hope to contribute towards raising the bar for the industry.

Key findings of the report – highlighting several issues along with recommended solutions

Key issues / Areas of Improvement

Recommended Solutions

Preparedness to combat terror threat

It is observed that limited effort being made towards safeguarding our campuses from terror threat.
Moreover, installation of expensive terror combating features does not necessarily add economic value to the IT Park

First, we should improvise human efficiency in order to utilize current systems effectively.
For future improvements, collective effort from developers & occupiers is required to drive the change in this aspect.
Occupiers need to be open to share cost component, if required.

Disaster Management

Currently, availability of Safety Plan & Training programs (to implement safety plan) is not the strength of the industry.
It is observed fire drills are not conducted regularly, as prescribed in the NBC (Once every 3 months for up to 2 years old buildings and once every 6 months for building older than 2 years)

Developers & Occupiers need to make a joint effort towards this. Safety & Training programs on disaster management techniques should be made mandatory & conducted at periodic intervals.
Individuals (users) need to be disciplined during fire drills and education of disaster management.

Gap between Local Fire Legislation and NBC guidelines

Local legislations have not been able to adhere 100% to the NBC guidelines as far as areas such as pressurized staircase, detection in AC ducts are concerned

Central & State Government needs to standardize norms between NBC and local legislations.

3rd Party Vendor for FM Services

Most of the developers rely on in-house or hybrid model for FM services; only 20% of the participating parks rely on 3rd party vendors for FM operations.

Popularity of using/ employing 3rd party vendors for FM operations will rise in future with further expansion of this IT campuses and enhancement of transparency in real estate sector.
Increased availability of specialized 3rd party vendors.
Communication benefits of using 3rd party vendors for FM services to developers

Accommodation of Physically Challenged people needs in building design

The building design across the IT Campuses is not 100% compliant to “The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995”. Aspects such as dedicated parking space for physically challenged people, lifts supporting their requirements, antiskid material on floor, etc have been found somewhat lacking.

Occupiers need to give more weightage to this subject during site selection phase.
Developer need to accommodate all required building design features as per the Act.

IT Campus specific building design requirements

Building infrastructure and services for IT campuses are designed on the basis of occupancy load of 1 person every100 sqft (recommendation by NBC) but especially for ITeS/ BPO functions space requirement is around 60-70 sqft/person. This occupancy load difference tends to increase pressure on the building infrastructure and services.

Few NBC guidelines like Compartmentation (All floors shall be compartmented with area not exceeding 750 m2 by a separation wall with 2 h fire rating; for floor with sprinklers the area can be increased by 50%) cannot be implemented in IT campuses because IT/ITes function require large floor plates.

One needs to understand the target segment (percentage mix of IT and ITeS functions) for the IT campus and decide occupancy load accordingly.

In order to ensure full compliance to NBC guidelines for technology space, we may require few changes in NBC.

IT/ITeS sector should have a separate classification as technology parks under commercial buildings in NBC with guidelines that cater to this sector.

Provision of car parking space

In 1990s, provision of car park space used to be 1 per 1500 sqft but currently at 1 per 850 sqft/ 1 per 1000 sqft. Few occupiers’ expectations are as high as 1per 500 sqft. This is not sustainable in long term.

Provision and improvisation of mass transit systems only sustainable solution
Occupiers should discourage their employees for using private vehicles
Developers and local Government need to be partner for provision of bus services to the campuses

Power Requirements

As per Occupier Preference Survey, minimum power required for operation is 0.75 – 1.00 kVA/100 sqft. However, over 50% of the occupier consume 0.5 – 0.75 kVA /100 sqft.

Occupiers need to conduct surveys and evaluate their power requirements based on their usage pattern.

Redundancy Levels for DG (Power Back-up systems)

50% & 40% of the Occupiers prefer N+1 & N+N respectively redundancy levels for DG but currently, 40% & 50% IT campuses parks are proving N & N+1 redundancy levels.

Government needs to improve electricity provision to IT campuses.
In future, developers of large IT campuses need to evaluate feasibility of developing captive power plants (if possible through using renewable energy sources).

A summary of key trends and findings from tenant satisfaction surveys is given below

Expected Trends in Future:

First decade (1991 – 2000) of IT sector growth period witnessed establishment of basic physical infrastructure to support IT/ITeS functions, the next decade (2001 -2010) improvised this and established support social and business infrastructure for IT developments.

During current decade (2011 – 2020), we expect following trends in design & operations of IT campuses:

Further improvisation of social & business infrastructure in IT campuses and rise in percentage of development of integrated IT developments/townships

Enhancement of efficiency in building operations and systems through

o rise in adoption of green certification

o increased collaboration between developers and occupiers

o rise in adoption of Specialized/ 3rd Party FM service providers

o adopt sustainable transport infrastructure and systems (MRTS, buses, etc)

o conduct Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) to improvise space utilization, communication between occupiers and developers, building services and others.