Though the government has allowed resumption of construction activity at non-Covid-19 hotspots from April 20, builders in Noida have made it clear that they will not be able to restart work during the lockdown as they neither have raw materials nor workers on site.
“We are not restarting any construction work unless the entire supply chain is opened. This is because given the current situation, we will not be able to source raw materials. It will take time to restart projects,” Credai (western UP) vice president Amit Modi said.
Developers also said that getting labourers to the construction sites would be another problem, with the majority of migrant workers returning to their homestates due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
“Only those builders with labourers on project sites can restart construction activity. When it comes to our projects, we can’t start them because we need a variety of workers — carpenters, masons, plumbers, bar-binders. They are not available on site,” RK Arora, president of builders’ body Naredco-UP, said.
Pankaj Bajaj, president of Credai-NCR, also echoed Arora’s concerns. “More than 200 different kinds of raw materials go into construction and the supply chain is entirely shut now. There are no labourers at construction sites. Also how will the execution staff reach site? So we will have to wait until the lockdown is lifted.”
Real estate experts also found no justification in the government’s guideline regarding resumption of construction at non-Covid hotspots. “It didn’t take into consideration the fact that about 80% of the 44 million workforce in construction industry are migrants,” said Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock property consultants.
In a relief to builders, UP-Rera on Tuesday gave a three-month extension on completion and registration deadlines. All projects, which were due for completion between March 31 and December 31 this year, have now been given a 90-day relaxation due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
The regulator will also start hearing cases through video-conferencing after May 3, in the wake of proposals by realtors’ bodies Credai and Naredco.
