NEW DELHI: Delhi NCR builders met with Federal Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday to express concern over the ban on construction activities. They also argued that normal jobs that do not cause air pollution should be allowed to protect the interests of workers and homebuyers.
Representatives of the realtors association CREDAI-NCR met with the Minister to express their concerns, highlighting the impact of the ban and also submitting a memorandum of understanding proposing possible solutions.
Amid a sharp rise in air pollution from foggy weather, the Center’s Air Quality Panel on Friday ordered the implementation of restrictions under Stage III of the Delhi NCR’s Phased Response Action Plan (GRAP). demolition work.
In a letter to the Minister, Manoj Gaur, Chairman of CREDAI-NCR (Confederation of Indian Real Estate Developers Association-NCR), said that construction activities should be moved out of GRAP to enable the entire property sector, workers, vendors and ancillary industries. urged to remove it. be relieved.
“Once construction activity ceases, it takes 15 to 30 days or more to resume full-scale operations, so in practice, construction has been banned for the past 2.5 months, and once the ban is lifted, it will not be possible to fully resume. will take another 15 to 30 days, and we carried out a full-fledged operation as before,” Gaur said.
He noted that this has resulted in huge losses for the entire real estate sector, ancillary industries and all other stakeholders.
“In practice, all activities except demolition, excavation, drystone cutting, etc. do not cause pollution. Therefore, these activities shall be permitted in any case,” Gaur argued.
The association noted that the ban’s first impact will be directly on workers on construction sites.
The president of CREDAI-NCR said workers were unemployed and often returned to their home countries.
The ban on construction activities also delays the completion of real estate projects, thereby affecting property buyers.
Gaur suggested that RERA-registered projects should be considered public utility projects and exempt from the ban on construction activities.
The association proposed that activities causing pollution should be permitted periodically from February to November.
Lalit Aggarwal, vice-president of Signature Global, said pollution is undoubtedly a major challenge, especially in the metropolitan area.
“But a blanket ban on all construction activity on a temporary basis has its own set of problems and implications. Not only does it delay projects, it also increases construction costs,” he said. .
“Most projects have completion deadlines in accordance with RERA compliance, even more so for projects in the affordable housing segment that have a statutory timeline of four years to complete a project, and such prohibitions are cumulative annually. It delays the project significantly,” Aggarwal said. .
He hoped the government would provide some flexibility in RERA deadlines or allow activities that do not cause pollution, such as painting, plumbing and wiring.