Digital BIM overlays and on-site collaboration highlight coordination and planning at a major construction site during India’s infrastructure expansion.
India, August 30, 2025
India’s infrastructure expansion faces a growing risk from a severe shortage of Building Information Modeling (BIM) professionals. Experts warn the country needs roughly ten times the current BIM workforce to avoid project delays, cost overruns and reduced global competitiveness. Major projects across airports, transit, highways, smart cities and green buildings depend on integrated digital workflows that BIM enables. Root causes include outdated curricula, fragmented upskilling and low stakeholder awareness. Leaders recommend modernizing education, scaling industry–academia project-based training, offering incentives for adoption and running sector-wide awareness campaigns to align skills with digital and sustainability goals.
Key point: India is building at unprecedented speed, but a deep shortfall of Building Information Modeling (BIM) experts threatens to slow projects, inflate costs, and undermine global competitiveness unless urgent training and policy steps are taken.
India is racing to reshape its landscape with airports, highways, metros, smart cities and green buildings. Industry leaders warn that a severe shortage of BIM professionals could undercut that growth. Novatr’s CEO and co‑founder, architect Harkunwar Singh, says India must produce roughly ten times more BIM experts by 2030 to keep pace with the nation’s infrastructure ambitions. If the gap persists, projects risk delays, cost overruns and lost efficiency—threatening both sustainability targets and investor confidence.
Modern infrastructure relies on integrated digital workflows. BIM is an essential tool for collaboration, cost optimisation and managing assets across their full lifecycle. Countries such as the United Kingdom and Singapore already require BIM on public projects; India’s slower adoption is creating a cycle of inefficient planning, repeated work and wasted resources. Lack of BIM capacity also weakens the country’s ability to deliver climate‑resilient and resource‑efficient buildings and infrastructure.
Singh and industry analysts point to three primary drivers behind the digital talent shortfall:
Inaction threatens persistent inefficiencies, inflated costs and delayed timelines. Governments and developers may find projects lose competitiveness among global investors who increasingly prefer partners with modern digital standards. BIM shortfalls could also hamper efforts to meet sustainability goals for green buildings and resilient infrastructure.
Industry leaders propose a coordinated approach to close the gap:
Senior practitioners stress that BIM professionals do more than operate software; they coordinate multi‑disciplinary collaboration that reduces rework and saves time, money and materials.
The construction sector remains robust. In 2024, nominal value added rose 10% and gross output climbed 12%. Global and domestic analyses show construction spending crossed US$2 trillion in the first half of 2024, while employment in the sector reached 8.3 million in July 2024, surpassing a previous peak. Nonetheless, talent shortages are widespread, and the industry is shifting toward digital tools—cloud computing, IoT, AI, digital twins and expanded BIM systems—to boost productivity and offset labour constraints.
Analysts expect construction investment to be supported by government capital expenditure programs and infrastructure laws that continue to allocate funds to manufacturing and energy projects. Meanwhile, high interest rates, price inflation and challenging lending markets remain headwinds for some residential and commercial segments.
Corporate developments reflect strategic repositioning in related sectors. One energy firm recently rebranded to signal expansion into defence, energy and real estate. Several executive appointments have been reported, including strategic planning and project design leadership in major groups, signalling continued corporate focus on growth and project delivery capability.
Warnings about BIM’s importance are not new. A 2019 industry analysis urged BIM adoption as essential for faster, more accurate project execution, noting countries already embracing BIM and recommending central policy mandates for consistent digital practice. That piece also argued that without stronger digital adoption, India’s infrastructure push—driven by ambitious airport, housing and rail targets—would see repeated inefficiencies and cost overruns.
Policymakers, educators and industry leaders will need to align on updated curricula, national upskilling programs and incentives that make BIM adoption a project requirement rather than an option. Private sector investment in training, paired with public procurement rules that favour digitally‑ready contractors, can accelerate change and protect the gains of a fast‑building India.
A: The shortage stems from outdated academic programs, fragmented and limited industry upskilling, and low awareness among decision‑makers about BIM’s strategic value.
A: Industry leaders estimate India needs about ten times its current BIM expert base by 2030 to support planned infrastructure growth.
A: Risks include project delays, cost overruns, wasted resources, missed sustainability goals and reduced appeal to global investors seeking modern standards.
A: Updating curricula, creating nation‑wide project‑based upskilling programs, offering government and private incentives for BIM use, and running awareness campaigns across the sector.
A: Several countries, including the UK and Singapore, mandate BIM for public projects and provide useful implementation examples for policy and procurement frameworks.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current challenge | Severe shortage of BIM professionals risking delays and cost overruns |
| Target by 2030 | Approximately 10x increase in BIM expert capacity needed |
| Primary causes | Outdated curricula, fragmented upskilling, low awareness |
| Core benefits of BIM | Improved collaboration, cost optimisation, lifecycle asset management, better sustainability outcomes |
| Recommended actions | Curriculum reform, industry–academia projects, incentives, awareness campaigns |
| Context | Strong construction fundamentals but ongoing talent shortages and rising digitalisation |
| Contact details (from reported facts) | Address: 3rd Floor, D-40, Sector-2, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201301. Emails: tripti@exchange4media.com, realtyplus@exchange4media.com. Phone: +91 98200 10226. |
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