Small firms hit by labour shortage

Small and medium sized construction companies have been unable to execute industrial and residential projects on time due to shortage of unskilled labour.

A few companies say that clients have started to drag them to court for failure to deliver finished properties within deadline. The firms, however, refuse to name their clients.

Some of these companies are trying to bridge the workforce demand-supply gap by bringing fresh hands from states outside their own and some have started importing foreign workforce from counties like Vietnam, Zambia and Thailand.

Traditionally labour flow into major cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai was from less developed states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. Today, however, the supply of workforce from these states is slowing down as industrial activities have gone up in these states as well.

A few companies have approached the government to allow them to