NEW DELHI: India's builders on Friday wrote to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari seeking the Centre's intervention in creating a conducive environment to begin construction work, pointing out that several challenges exist in resuming work on highway projects.
According to the letter from the Builders Association of India (BAI), Maharashtra, Goa and Daman & Diu have already issued circulars asking contractors to resume work on highway projects stalled due to the coronavirus lockdown. However, there are several challenges involved in resuming work, including major issues like the absence of adequate labour, ensuring the safety of labourers and the supply of key raw materials, Raju John, director general, BAI told The New Indian Express.
In its letter to the Highways minister, the association said that local police stations and gram panchayats have passed clear orders earlier to terminate such work and that many villages have been sealed. Essential raw materials like furnace oil are available only in Mumbai, a hotspot with a high number of cases, and supply has been choked off, said BAI.
Supply of critical bitumen and cement is also a challenge, as is organising sufficient manpower like "supervisors, skilled and unskilled workers".
"But they are not easily available as almost all workers have deserted project sites due to the fear of being infected," the letter noted, adding that to resume work now would also cost the contractors more.
"An assurance of full compensation for any such increase of cost to the contractors by the Works Authority is imperative," the letter said.
The Centre had announced on Wednesday that all construction work outside municipalities and construction projects with workers on site in municipalities will be allowed to resume from April 20. However, builders and developers in the sector are worried that the lack of raw material supply and the absence of adequate labour will make the task difficult.
"Many migrant workers had left for their villages post the first lockdown announcement. We will have to wait and see how many are actually left to resume work. Migrant workers make up at least 80 per cent of the total 44 million workforce in the construction sector currently," pointed out Anuj Puri, Chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants.