Construction projects hit as workers keep away

The spread of the novel coronavirus has started impacting ongoing construction projects with workers increasingly not reporting at the sites even as most developers have kept the work on for now, industry insiders said. More than 30% construction workers are staying away from work sites due to fear over coronavirus infection and many of them may have returned to their villages or are planning to do so, they said. Contractors are also not keen on pushing them either. “Most of the sites are running at just half of our usual run rate as fear about the infection is keeping workers’ attendance at less than 70%,” said Satish Magar, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (Credai). “We cannot do much as these are extraordinary situations and we need to understand their concerns too.” Prashin Jhobalia, VP Marketing Strategy, House of Hiranandani, "As a safety and preventive measure against the virus that is infiltrating every aspect of our life, we are dissuading direct interactions among our customers and employees. In the interest of all our stakeholders and the society, we have begun practising social distancing at all our offices and project sites. In order to ensure business functions at a normal pace or with the least impact, we are promoting our projects through digital enablers for the domestic and international prospects. It is working well and we plan to continue in this manner until the impact of virus is gone and things return to normal. " According to the industry body, there are around 20,000 ongoing projects across the country, and construction work is being undertaken in around 18,000 of them. This involves a workforce of about 8.5 million in construction work alone.