SHAH ALAM: To promote consistent development and ensure uniformity across all Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) housing projects, PR1MA officially launched the PR1MA Building Information Modelling (BIM) Guide at its PR1MA BIM Townhall meeting on Tuesday.

Utilising the BIM technology is one of PR1MA’s initiatives to ensure that the market prices of PR1MA houses are lower than the market price of houses in the vicinity, according to PR1MA chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Mutalib Alias.

According to PR1MA chief operating officer Aminuddin Abdul Manaf, “PR1MA is a government agency that not only focuses on providing homes to those who need them, but also has a long-term vision of improving the country’s construction industry.”

Aminuddin said that BIM is a solution to a lot of problems that are normally encountered not only during construction but also during the design development, and that many problems on-site are due to the inefficiencies and coordination of drawings.

“I believe BIM will take a bit of work and a lot of commitment in the beginning, but I foresee down the road, in about a year or two, once we have achieved our standardisation in terms of design and specification, [BIM] will be a great help to a lot of people, including all the consultants and all the developers that are working with us,” he added.

BIM enables building professionals to analyse the physical characteristics of a project and its function throughout the construction process.

The BIM technology has been utilised in many countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia to improve the efficiency and accuracy of projects, along with enhancing collaboration among the developer, project manager, quantity surveyor, engineer and architect for costs and resources management.

At the launch, PR1MA BIM assistant vice-president KC Ho, who is also the PR1MA BIM Guide adviser said, “The BIM technology will ensure that construction costs are accurate prior to construction, with almost no run-offs. This will ensure that there is no wastage of materials and that the development projects adhere to the stipulated construction schedule.”

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 30, 2015.