Realty Cos. Offer Perks to Bring Back Labourers
According to the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry, , close to 700,000 of the 900,000 on-site real estate workforce returned to their home towns after as Mumbai emerged as the country’s worst-affected Covid-19 hot spot in April. The builders said they have been facing an acute shortage of work
Published -
Jul 11, 2020 6:52 AM
According to the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry, , close to 700,000 of the 900,000 on-site real estate workforce returned to their home towns after as Mumbai emerged as the country’s worst-affected Covid-19 hot spot in April. The builders said they have been facing an acute shortage of workers, and that they are left with no option but to try and tempt them back with flight tickets, enhanced wages, boarding facilities and medical insurance, in addition to weekly medical check-ups. Real estate executives say they have appointed independent contractors who are scouting for skilled construction workers in Uttar Pradesh and eastern Indian states that have been traditional sources of construction labour. Real estate consultancy Liases Foras warned that the sector will confront a long-term crisis if work does not start soon on stuck projects. The firm estimates that there are at least 4,500 ongoing projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, of which less than 40% have restarted. Airline tickets, higher wages, medical insurance, weekly doctor visits -- these are some of the perks Mumbai’s real estate companies are offering -- not to senior executives but to the hundreds of thousands of construction workers who left the city in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak and the ensuing lockdown. The sops are meant to entice back the workers who returned home to states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha so that construction can resume on projects that are stuck for lack of labour.
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