Construction activity may resume in Noida and Greater Noida from mid-May, provided no further restrictions are imposed by the government, UP-Rera officials have said.
However, builders say there will be low momentum as the strength of labourers in the twin cities is only one-third of what’s required for full-fledged construction work to restart. Only 2 lakh construction workers are currently left in the district.
In fact, UP-Rera officials gave the indication at a video-conference with builders represented by Credai-NCR and Naredco on Monday. “We have heard them out and we will consider their requests, tentatively, if everything remains as it is, we will let them start construction work from mid-May,” UP-Rera member Balvinder Kumar told.
However, according to the builders, construction work will only start at a very slow pace as Noida and Greater Noida are only be left with about two lakh labourers as most of the migrant workers have gone back to their homestates and also the developers will be required to follow social distancing norms at project sites.
RK Arora, president of Naredco-UP, said, “We will have to work at one-third the capacity. At Supertech, we have 4,000 labourers who we hosted through the lockdown and took care of them with food and shelter, so they will be able to join work immediately. Social distancing norms will also have to be maintained.”
Among some demands made by builders to the regulator on Monday were that they be granted a one-year extension of deadlines for completion of pending projects, facilitated disbursement of the Rs 25,000 crore stress fund that was announced by the central government to aid real estate last-mile construction and given waiver of stamp duty for one year to create a demand in the sector.
“UP-Rera is aware of the severe challenges the real estate sector is facing in the state. The supply chain is broken, there is uncertainty over labour availability and there is a liquidity crunch. The regulator wants to ensure that homebuyers get their homes on time within these constraints. The builders are neither hoping nor seeking a bailout. All we want is that Noida and Greater Noida authorities treat the builders fairly,” said Pankaj Bajaj, president of Credai-NCR.