P.C. VARGHESE, M.S.; M.Engg. (Harvard); Ph.D., is a distinguished teacher, a well-known consultant and an established author. He had his postgraduate education in soil mechanics at Harvard University, USA (under Professor Terzaghi and Professor Casagrande) and also in reinforced concrete design at Imperial College, London (under Professor A.L.L. Baker). As a teacher, he worked as one of the founding faculty member of three well-known universities—IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and University of Maratuwa, Sri Lanka (here, he also served as UNESCO Chief Technical Advisor). He has good field experiences as Assistant Soil Specialist, Hirakud Dam Project in Odisha, Construction Engineer at IIT Kharagpur and UNCHS Advisor to Buildings Department, Sri Lanka. As an author, he has written a number of textbooks in the field of Civil Engineering after his retirement while working as Honorary Visiting Professor, College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai. Including the present book, he has written nine books—Building Construction, Foundation Engineering, Design of Reinforced Concrete Foundations, Engineering Geology for Civil Engineers, Limit State Design of Reinforced Concrete, 2nd ed., Advanced Reinforced Concrete Design, 2nd ed., Design of Reinforced Concrete Shells and Folded Plates, Maintenance, Repair & Rehabilitation and Minor Works of Buildings—all published by PHI Learning.