Difficult to resume construction work as material is not reaching sites due to border restrictions, developers tell UP minister

Developers from Noida, Greater Noida, and Yamuna Expressway areas on Tuesday apprised the Uttar Pradesh industrial development minister Satish Mahana of the problems they are facing in resuming operations despite the relaxation in lockdown norms over a webinar.

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The developers said while they had received permission to start construction in their realty projects, work is yet to take off completely as construction material is not reaching the site. “The government has allowed permission to resume operations at the sites, but a lot of us are yet to restart the construction work. Construction material such as steel, cement, sand, among other equipment is not reaching the sites due to the restrictions at state or district borders Also, our staff is facing issues in reaching the sites. We can only resume work, once these things get back to normal,” said Amit Modi, vice-president of the western UP chapter CREDAI (Confederation of Real Estate Developers Asociation of India), a builders’ group.

The key demands that the builders put in front of the minister include waiver of electricity bills, lease rent for their housing land, reduction in rate of interest on financial dues. Asking the government to help the realty sector which has been badly hit by the lockdown, the builders also urged the minister to get the Noida and Greater Noida authorities and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) to delay the collection of financial, and also demanded an additional one year to finish the delayed housing projects apart from financial support.

“In January this year, the UP government had decided not to impose interest on projects which were delayed due to court cases over housing land. They, however, only passed on this benefit to those builders who will finish their projects by June 2021. We demanded that this deadline should be extended by a year as the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the speed of all housing projects. Without the support of the state government and the Noida authority among other government agencies builders will not be able to finish the projects as per schedule,” said Prashant Tiwari president, CREDAI (Western UP).

The hour-long webinar was attended by at least 400 developers from across Uttar Pradesh who said state government should not delay taking decisions on their demands.

“The need of the hour is that the government takes decisions at earliest before their issues get bigger. The government may realise if the real estate sector suffers, then many allied businesses such as those which are into producing steel, cement, apart from professional and many unskilled workers will be adversely affected,” said Abhay Kumar, chief managing director, Grihapravesh Buildteck Private Limited.

The industry minister and state government officials who attended the webinar, including industrial and infrastructure development commissioner Alok Tandon, however did not specify when the UP government will take a decision on the developers’ demands.

“We are looking into all issues being faced by the real estate sector. The state government wants to address these issues because it is not only builders who are suffering in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, but also homebuyers and other people dependent on the sector,” said Satish Mahana UP industry minister.

The webinar was also attended by chief executive officer(CEO) of Noida authority, Ritu Maheshwari, Yeida CEO Arun Vir Singh, and Greater Noida authority CEO Narendra Bhooshan.