The district administration has allowed various small and big-ticket construction work in the city, but limited workforce, disrupted supply chain movement and shortage of raw materials could impede efforts to complete already-delayed projects.
Last week, the administration approved a host of applications seeking permission to resume several road-widening and other infrastructural projects of agencies like NHAI and GMDA. Approval, however, came with riders, and mandated strict adherence to the standard operating procedures set by the administration.
Though work has now resumed, uncertainty looms over its continuity, as a critically-low inventory of raw materials, labour shortage and the possibility of another wave of reverse migration of labourers are major hurdles for these projects to catch steam.
Contractors of major infrastructural projects in the city told that their existing inventory can support them for only a week and operations may come to a halt thereafter if the supply chain isn’t restored. They claimed that availability of construction materials like gravel, sand, iron rods and hardware, among others, is a major problem at present.
“I don’t know how to view this partial resumption of economic activities, like construction work. The lockdown came all of a sudden, so we couldn’t even stock up enough materials. Our inventory will be exhausted in seven days,” said an official of MG Contractor, GMDA’s contractor for the Huda City Centre redevelopment project.
An NHAI contractor too asserted that partial relaxations will not be of any major help in reviving work. On the contrary, ever-changing lists of containment zones, stringent restrictions on mobility and sealing of borders have raised new challenges, it said.
Moreover, restrictions on mobility and tardy regulatory clearances for middlemen like traders, who supply equipment and construction material to contractors, will impact availability of crucial machinery like crushers.
“Getting permission and clearances from the administration is next to impossible. Even if somehow we get approval, freight services are badly disrupted. Transporters keep citing lack of truckers and those who are ready are hiking their prices, claiming that they need to grease several palms before they can reach the destination,” said a trader who facilitates movement of crushers and raw materials for construction work.