The Ministry of Home Affairs issued guidelines on April 15 on road construction companies to start construction from April 20. However, the National Highway Builders Federation has said construction activities will remain hampered for a considerable longer period even beyond the national lockdown date, which currently stands at May 3.
In a letter to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and National Highways Authority of India, NHBF stated that the supply chain for materials is in doldrums.
While the MHA guidelines have been made for factories and establishments, there is no clarity on the workings of the Statement of Purpose for construction projects.
According to an industry expert, the permissions are for open-air construction projects. Projects with tunneling or under ground work may suffer.
Further, the construction material required, like cement, steel, bitumin and sand needs to be mobilised. This would require these goods to cross states, districts and villages through red, orange and green zones before reaching construction site.
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NHBF has thus asked the government to declare them as 'essential goods' to permit movement of vehicles delivering the goods to site as well as those travelling to the source of supply.
Also, the issue of labour shortage plagues several construction sites as labourers have left sites and are either held midway or reached their native places. In the absence of public transport, it would be difficult to get the migrant workforce back.
The lockdown has also adversely affected movement of construction equipment,trained operators and specialised service technicians.
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According to a report by KPMG, the Indian construction industry employs over 49 million people, close to 12 per cent of the nation’s working population.
Construction productivity gets impacted during the monsoon period during June and July, when monsoon sets in for most parts of the country. Thus, this may further hamper productivity.
NHAI on April 5 had announced it has completed constructing 3979 km of highways in the financial year 2019-20.
However, the authority stopped short of meeting its target of 4500 km for the current fiscal, which effectively translates into 12.32 km per day as against the accomplishment of 10.9 km per day.
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