Covid-19: Labour crunch hits roads construction and realty business

States like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the severity of Covid-19 infections is high, are reporting a higher loss of on-site labourers

In the past few weeks, construction work has been impacted by stricter Covid-19 curbs, fears of a complete lockdown, and workers falling ill. The situation is, however, not the same everywhere, with states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the severity of Covid-19 infections is high, reporting a higher loss of on-site labourers.
 
Road construction projects across the country are staring at cost escalation if the second wave of Covid-19 continues for a longer duration. Confirming this, an official of the National Highways Authority of India said only if the contagion was contained within a few weeks, the agency would be able to make up for the time lost.

 
Real estate companies, however, said their loss of work was limited, as state governments were allowing construction activity to continue. “Only 10 to 15 per cent of labourers have gone due to their annual leave, vacation or weddings; 85 per cent are still there. A good thing in this lockdown is that governments have allowed construction at sites,” Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director of  Hiranandani Communities, said.
 

Still, a lot depends on the location of the project. The work on a national highway project near Varanasi has been badly affected.
 
Amit Goenka, managing director of Mumbai-based Nisus Finance, a property fund manager, said 10-15 per cent of labourers at the sites of investee companies were unwell and 20-40 per cent of labourers had left for their hometowns for different reasons. “The number of hours at sites has also been restricted due to the pandemic. It is five days in Mumbai and six days in Pune. Work at sites was affected for four to six weeks.”   

 
Tata Realty has 20 projects in 15 cities with over 3,000 construction workers. Its sites are well staffed, barring a few, where they have been impacted due to the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
 
“The shortage would be under 10 per cent and is largely due to some camps where labourers are travelling or coming from outside of the site in that city only,” said Sanjay Dutt, managing director at Tata Realty & Infrastructure. He claimed that due to the safety standards, quality of labour camps, health facilities and full support for tests and vaccination by the company, they were able to attract quality supervisors, contractors and labourers.