Following the massive earthquake which devastated huge areas of Gujarat in January 2001, the international charity organisation Catholic Relief Services (CRS) committed itself to assisting several rehabilitation programmes. Their latest commitment is the construction of 6,000 houses of various types - each of about 28m² size - before June 2003.
The house design, which is earthquake resistant and has design approval from the Gujarat State Government, incorporates the use of Auroville-developed ferrocement roofing plus Auram hollow interlocking compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEBs) for walls. The latter are being manufactured using Auroville's highly acclaimed Auram 3000 press, 75 Nos. of which have been supplied, with some operating on a continuous double-time-shift basis in the area. The average wet compressive strength achieved with the local soil stabilized with 8-9% cement using these presses is around 50 kg/cm² (after 24 hours immersion).