Where the Money Actually Goes: Cost Distribution in Indian Building Projects

The percentage tables that circulate for Indian building cost distribution almost never name a source, and the documents that do exist answer a narrower question. CPWD's Plinth Area Rates 2025 prices the whole civil works of a building as one rate per square metre and adds services as fixed percentages of it, so substructure, frame, envelope and finishes are never separated and preliminaries never appear as a line. This report sets out what that schedule and the CPWD Works Manual apparatus publish, works the arithmetic through by building type, shows which shares move with height, services intensity and site density, and names the splits no Indian source publishes.

Part of AECS Research Global's publications programme — drawing on ARG's work across cost management, EPC advisory and integrated project delivery. Download the full report below.