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1. Introduction
Chennai is located in the South Eastern coast of India in the state of Tamil Nadu with geographical coordinates of 13°04’N latitude and 80°17’E longitude. It has a spread of various manufacturing sectors namely, automobiles, automobile parts, electronics, food and glass manufacturing, which has created a large market for employment opportunities for locals and people in other states of India. Also, Chennai is the sixth most populous city in India with a total population of 46 million that has increased 7 per cent since 2001 (Government of India, 2011) and it is the fourth largest urban agglomeration in the country. Due to this booming population, the need for quality built environment and public infrastructure has also increased, with subsequent increase in number of workers engaged in construction work, which accounts for about 1.8 million workers (The Times of India), while in Tamil Nadu about 19 per cent of workers are involved in this occupation (Construction Workers Welfare Board) (Krishnamurthy and Nair, 2003). In India, according to the National Survey Sample (2007-2008) the estimated amount of migrant population is about 326 million (Srivastava, 2011), and construction industry attracts a large percentage of this migrant population across district/state borders for employment.
Construction work involves different tasks (namely, manual excavation, steel erection, masonry, electrical, carpentry, labouring and equipment operation) and all these tasks falls predominantly under moderate (300 W) and heavy work (415 W) categories. Construction workers are often exposed to severe environmental temperatures during their work which may potentially deteriorate their work efficiency and productivity, and may even threaten survival (Thomas et al., 1999; Liu et al., 2011; Nielsen, 2006; Rojas and Aramvareekul, 2003). It has been reported that heat stress at work poses physiological and psychological effects on workers and can lead to a reduction of work enthusiasm and productivity, and an increased accident rate (Hancher and Abd-Elkhalek, 1988). Heat illnesses (Nag et al., 2011; Kjellstrom, 2009) and, in some cases, even death especially when combined with physical exertion. Thus heat exposure can impact the health and productivity of the workers potentially and hence the economy (Kjellstrom and Crowe, 2011). It has been reported that hourly work productivity among workers in Thailand was reduced by 10-60 per cent in construction work...