The builder’s association Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India-NCR (CREDAI-NCR) has reached on the Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav to express their concern over multiple bans enforced on construction activities in the last few months. The builder’s association has cited that these bans have caused numerous delays to their projects and urged the minister to reconsider what activities should be banned to curb pollution. According to them normal construction work should be allowed to continue for the sake of homebuyers and daily wage labourers.
The builder’s association Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India-NCR (CREDAI-NCR) has reached on the Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav to express their concern over multiple bans enforced on construction activities in the last few months. The builder’s association has cited that these bans have caused numerous delays to their projects and urged the minister to reconsider what activities should be banned to curb pollution. According to them normal construction work should be allowed to continue for the sake of homebuyers and daily wage labourers.
Earlier this week, representatives of the realtors body CREDAI-NCR met with the environment minister to discuss difficulties being faced by the industry on account of the recent construction bans enforced under GRAP stage III responses to tackle air pollution. The body submitted a memorandum highlighting the impact these bans have had on their ability to carry out business and meet with deadlines. It also included suggestions for possible resolutions.
Amid sudden spikes in air pollution levels coupled with foggy weather, the air quality panel implemented curbs under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi-NCR which included a ban on non-essential construction activities. In its letter to the minister, CREDAI-NCR requested that construction activities be excluded from GRAP for several reasons.
According to CREDAI-NCR representatives, upon halting construction activities it takes developers an average of 15-30 days to remobilise and resume operations at full capacity. Due to the several bans implemented over the last three months, construction activities have all but completed halted. This has resulted in an exodus of daily wage labourers returning to their hometown on account of no work. Thus, stopping construction activities has resulted in severe losses for the entire real estate sector including ancillary industries and other stakeholders.
Apart from the monetary and labour losses the real estate sector is struggling to maintain deadlines and adhere to RERA imposed timelines for completion of projects due to the bans. Affordable housing projects have an additional constraint of having to be completed within four years of commencement. These bans have not only delayed projects but also added to the cost of construction, leaving builders in a turmoil.
Some of the suggestions made by the builder’s apex body include excluding non-polluting activities such as finishing work from the list of banned activities. According to them the only obviously polluting activities are demolition work, excavation work and dry stone cutting which cause some amount of air pollution within a 5–10-meter radius of the construction site. Therefore, they believe the blanket ban does little to help with the pollution levels. They have urged authorities to take a more flexible approach in finding a resolution to the looming problem.
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