Site preparation is no easy task in Hyderabad thanks to the fact that the whole area is covered in huge, house-sized boulders that need to be removed prior to starting construction. This process starts with explosives which break the rocks into manageable pieces. After this, labourers use picks to chip the rocks down to whatever sized fill is required.

The lack of power tools (aside from a couple of excavators and a tractor) was surprising to me but I reckon that the expense of pneumatic drills and other such equipment would not make economic sense in a country where the labour pool is enormous and as close to free as you can get (though, to be honest, I have no idea how much an itinerant construction worker is paid).