Builders step up Covid-19 precautionary measures at construction sites

Real estate developers are stepping up existing precautionary measures to comply with Maharashtra government’s partial lockdown directives to ensure safety of construction workers at their sites.

Some developers have already been making efforts to vaccinate workers, provide food and shelter at the site itself and also make arrangements for the workers’ families by providing a creche in order to avoid a repeat of reverse migration witnessed last year.

Following the return of labourers starting late August, realty developers have been making these arrangements and are confident that they are well-equipped and prepared this time based on the scenario experienced last year.

“We are in a better state of mind today with past learnings, increased immunisation and focus on well-being, vaccination shots in offing, adaptation to the new normal way of living and working and productivity in revival mode,” Niranjan Hiranandani- National President of realtors’ body NAREDCO, told ET.

According to him, the industry is equipped now to tackle the on-ground situation with better safety gears and precautionary measures in practice.

Developers will be responsible for in-situ construction labourers on site to ensure their healthcare protocols, vaccination drive, regular health check-up & well-being, food and sanitised shelter, social distancing as per the norms, mobile creche operational for their kids etc to ensure smooth production.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) has already announced providing free Covid-19 vaccination to over 2.5 crore construction workers at the sites of its over 13,000 developer members across 217 Indian cities and towns.

“CREDAI MCHI and our over 1,800 developer members are currently overseeing and implementing various safety initiatives and measures to ensure adequate preparation in view of the new set of restrictions imposed by the state government to combat the spread of the virus. We are grateful to the authorities for not putting a halt on construction activities and assure all the efforts to ensure the safety of our workers and employees at the construction sites,” said Deepak Goradia, President, CREDAI-MCHI.

In addition to the basic accommodation, food and refreshments amenities, CREDAI MCHI is also beginning a vaccination drive for all our workers to ensure maximum safety and restrict transmission.

Industry observers believe that amidst the rising Covid19 cases across key states, developers are trying to keep construction activity unaffected as much as possible but higher number of vaccinations hereon will be helpful.

“Given that the average age of construction labour in India is 32 years, it is imperative that the government opens the vaccination drive for all. This will help developers to get their workers vaccinated and thus keep construction activity unaffected, invariably helping the economy,” said Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants.

According to Hiranandani, the digital platforms are fully leveraged for customer communication, online sales & marketing and tapping new markets to keep the business continuity plan intact during this period limiting the impact on sales activity.

The government of Maharashtra on Sunday night announced that construction will be allowed only for projects where labourers are living on site with restriction of movement outside, except for the construction material movements.

It has also directed that everyone engaged in the activity to get vaccinated at the earliest and until then must carry a negative RTPCR test result certificate, which will be valid for 15 days starting from April 10.

Any default on these measures will attract a fine of 10,000 for the developer and repeated defaults may lead to closure of the construction site till existence of notification of Covid19. Construction workers, who would test Covid19 positive cannot be discontinued from work during the absence for this reason and will get full wages.