With red zone riders, challenges many for big infra

By Times of India – With red zone riders, challenges many for big infra Gurgaon: Construction of three major infrastructure projects has been given the green light by the Centre, but its implementation is riddled with logistical problems in a red zone like Gurgaon. In the absence of sufficient labourers, raw material and machinery, contractors are not sure how long they can continue work on the three projects — Ambience, U-turn at Shankar Chowk and elevated Sohna. Road. All three are being built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). According to the home ministry’s guidelines, construction on projects can start with whatever workforce is available on the site, but with adequate safety measures like social distancing and sanitisation being enforced. But with the lockdown in place and many areas sealed, transporting raw material or machinery is almost impossible. Contractors have already said that each project would be delayed by at least 4-6 months. Another major problem is the lack of workers. “A large number of labourers for these projects were from Uttar Pradesh. But they have gone back home. They aren’t likely to come back anytime soon. We have received permission for 20 workers,” said an official of RK Contractors, the private agency carrying out construction at the Ambience underpass and the elevated U-turn at Shankar Chowk. Both these projects had started with 200 workers. Now, construction is being carried with just 20 of them. For the Sohna Road project, too, NHAI has received permission to carry out work with 175 labourers in two shifts. Earlier, the project had a strength of 800 workers. One of the site engineers said, “A lot of our workers have already left for home. Among those who are still here, many are apprehensive of coming to work fearing infection.” He added that while he lives nearby and has less trouble reaching the location, other engineers are from far-off places. “Without the engineers, the workers would not know what to do,” he said. An official of Oriental Structural Engineers, the contractor responsible for the elevated Sohna Road project, raised concerns over the arrangement for workers in keeping with the administration’s guidelines. “We have facilities for the workers to stay on the premises. But we need to make changes as per the SOPs mandated by the administration. Thereafter, officials will inspect,” said the official. Besides shortage of manpower, another problem is the lack of machinery and raw material. Officials at Oriental also mentioned that their supplies for cement and gravel would only last them another week and they may have to stall work after that. “We are also having trouble with moving our machinery to the Ambience mall project site, which is right at the Gurgaon-Delhi border, due to the restrictions. Even if we get permission, we will have to move between Delhi and Gurgaon just to access different parts of the site, which might be tricky,” said the official. The project is 30% complete and is expected to be delayed by another six months. The elevated U-turn at Shankar Chowk was supposed to open by the end of April and the Ambience underpass in June-end. But since both are just about 70% complete, they will take another three to four months to be built. DownloadThe Times of India News App for Latest City NewsSubscribeStart Your Daily Mornings with Times of India Newspaper! Order Now

For more details, please visit https://ift.tt/2YhBss6

The post With red zone riders, challenges many for big infra appeared first on Stay in Gurgaon.