Credai-NCR raises concerns over construction activities ban

New Delhi: The builders in Delhi-NCR met Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav to express concerns over a ban on construction activities.

They also urged that normal work that does not cause air pollution should be permitted to protect the interest of labourers and homebuyers. Representatives of realtors body Credai-NCR met the minister to air their concerns and also submitted a memorandum highlighting the impact of the ban and suggesting possible solutions.

Amid a sudden spike in air pollution due to foggy weather, the Centre's air quality panel on Friday directed the implementation of curbs under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi-NCR, including a ban on non-essential construction and demolition work.

In a letter to the minister, Credai-NCR (Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India-NCR) President Manoj Gaur urged that construction activities be excluded from GRAP so that the entire real estate sector, labourers, vendors, and ancillary industries can get relief. "Since construction activity once stopped, takes more than 15 to 30 days to resume full-fledged operations, hence practically construction is banned for the last 2.5 months and once the ban gets lifted, it will take another 15 to 30 days in resuming full-fledged operations as before," Gaur said.

This is causing huge losses to the entire realty sector, ancillary industries and all other stakeholders, he pointed out. "Practically, all the activities except demolition, excavation, dry stone cutting, etc do not cause any pollution and even if they cause a little-bit then that is within 5 to 10 metres i.e. inside the construction site itself, and does not pollute the entire city. Hence, these activities shall be allowed in any case," Gaur argued.

The association pointed out that the first impact of this ban is directly on the labourers working on construction sites. Labourers become unemployed and often go back to their native states, the Credai-NCR president said. The ban on construction activities also leads to a delay in completing real estate projects and thereby affecting property buyers.

Gaur suggested that the RERA-registered projects should be considered public interest projects and excluded from the ban on construction activities. The association suggested that the activities which cause pollution should be allowed periodically, from February to November only.

Lalit Aggarwal, vice-chairman of Signature Global, said there is no doubt that pollution has become a big challenge, especially in the National Capital Region. "However, ad hoc blanket ban on all construction activities has its own problem and impact. Not only does it delay the project, it also adds to the cost of construction," he said.

"Given that, most projects have a completion deadline as per RERA compliance, even more for projects in affordable housing segment where there is a statutory timeline of four years to complete the project, such bans every year cumulatively delay the project significantly," Aggarwal said. He hoped that the government will provide some flexibility either in the RERA deadlines or allow those activities which do not create pollution like painting, plumbing and wiring among others.