After farmers complaining about shortage of labour due to NREGA, now Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) says real estate projects are experiencing time and cost over runs due to shortage of labour.
“I would say the shortage of labour could be about 40 per cent. Also, the labour costs have almost doubled. For a project where about 1,000 people used to work, now only 600 are available,” according to CREDAI president Lalit Kumar Jain.
Migrant labour, particularly from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are not available in the required numbers. “From job reduction to shortage of manpower, it tells about the growth of the real estate sector after the revival of growth post the recession in 2008,” he said.
The real estate sector revived during 2008-09, grew at a rapid pace during 2009-10 and lagged in growth during 2010-11 due to labour shortage, he said.
“Approvals cost 40 per cent of the sale costs. The taxes account for nearly 30 per cent and the land costs are high. Without a policy framework to bring these costs down, the proposed regulation will turn into a corruption channel,” he said while suggesting single window for all clearances to reduce the time lag.
