At present, India requires construction of many houses at right prices because of huge housing shortage. With the use of conventional or traditional materials and technology, it is not possible to complete the construction of buildings with rapid pace. Therefore, the industry must use some alternative materials and technology for fast-track building construction. The paper presents a comparative study on time and cost of building made up of three different structural systems like Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC), steel and composite structures. Taking the same plan, floor area, floor-to-floor height and loading conditions, the building was designed considering three structural systems, and the structural element cost was calculated for all the three structures. Microsoft Project (2003) (MSP) was used for time scheduling, and the optimum time required for building construction with the three structural systems was calculated. In comparison with RCC structure, steel structure saves 18.66% and composite structure saves 32.02% in construction time, thereby providing savings in net cost. The cost of construction of composite steel structure is 41.28% higher when compared to RCC structure and cost of steel structure is 38.19% higher when compared to RCC structure.

According to Government of India, the total housing shortage during 12th Five-Year Plan would be 18.78 million dwelling units (Smriti, 2013). Even though Central, State and Local governments are taking necessary steps, still there is a large gap between supply and demand of houses. At present, India needs to build many million houses at right location with affordable price. Traditionally in India, buildings are either load-bearing structures with appropriate roof or Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) frame structures with infill masonry walls. With these conventional systems, it is not possible to complete the construction with rapid speed and reduce the gap between supply and demand of houses. Therefore, the industry must find an alternative solution such as steel structures, composites structures and prefab technology for construction which has inherent advantages in terms of quality, productivity, durability and cost.

RCC structures made with the use of concrete and steel are commonly used in India for building constructions. Steel structures are made up of structural steel, whereas composite structures are generally made up of three major elements, i.e., reinforced concrete, structural steel work and shear connection. Each of these components makes its own contribution to strength and durability of the structure. Composite construction practice is still at a very nascent stage in India, so its effectiveness and applicability must be propagated for structures where fast-track construction is of utmost importance promoting the cost-effective composite construction (Ambadkar and Pajgade, 2012). In India, many consulting engineers are reluctant to accept the use of composite steel concrete structures because of its unfamiliarity and complexity in its analysis and design. But the literature says that if properly configured, then composite steel concrete system can provide extremely economical structural systems with high durability, rapid erection and superior seismic performance characteristics (Panchal and Marathe, 2011). Different structural systems have various advantages and disadvantages. Attempts on construction cost comparison for various structural systems have been made to identify the costeffective system. But due to the complexity of building construction, no comprehensive study on this topic has been done. Earlier studies include comparison of a few trial designed buildings and comparison of real projects (Li and Robert, 2004). Different structural systems can be effective in different projects depending upon the nature and specification of the project. The objective of the study is to study the time and cost comparison of construction of RCC, steel and composite steel structure building. The analysis for each alternative was done by considering three parameters, i.e., sizing of members, material quantities and time of construction. The study was intended to help the decision makers in choosing the most economical structural system for a project.

Structural Engineering Journal, Cost evaluation, Time scheduling, Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC), Composite structures, Steel structures.