Continuous spells of rainfall for the past couple of weeks may not be good news for people building new houses.
The price of bricks rises as the production of bricks in kilns across Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Erode districts has been hit due to the continuous rain.
The Erode district has 52 brick kilns and of them 26 are in the city limit. Most of the kilns are situated along Karur, Bhavani, Ammapet, Andhiyur and Sathyamangalam main roads. The Salem district has more than 250 kilns and of them nearly 110 kilns are functioning in and around Vazhapadi taluk. Namakkal district has 47 kilns, Dharmapuri district has 44 and Krishnagiri district has 18 kilns.
Each chamber can produce nearly 15,000 bricks every day. However, the demand for the bricks is higher than the production.
“But the continuous rains during the Nivar cyclone and later due to the Burevi cyclone halted brick production. So there is a temporary shortage for the bricks in the market,” said M Duraisamy, former secretary of the Erode District Brick Chamber Owners Association. “Not a single brick was made in the past 10 days in the kilns in the district,” he told TOI.
N Balasubramani, a brick kiln owner from Vazhapadi in Salem district, said they need at least 16 days to produce a brick.
At present, a single brick costs about Rs 8, excluding transportation as well as loading and unloading charges. Before the Nivar cyclone, the kiln owners sold a brick for Rs 6 including loading and unloading charges due to surplus production.
However, the price rise has hit builders and contractors.
M Ramesh, a building contractor, said the brick kiln owners utilising the situation to sell bricks for an exorbitant rate sans loading and unloading charges. “In cases where we can’t stop construction works, we don’t have any option but to buy the bricks at high price.
But some of brick owners said only large kilns which maintain huge stock are able to do business now and about 60 per cent of the small and medium sized kilns are closed and without business since the cyclone.
