Lockdown 3.0: Noida, Greater Noida Witness The Resumption Of Real Estate Construction

Real Estate projects in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway on Monday resumed construction activities with limited available manpower. The construction work resumed after district authorities gave approval for the same according to the guidelines for coronavirus lockdown 3.0.

The central and state governments on Sunday issued fresh guidelines permitting limited activities with necessary precautions in the real estate sector. The guidelines issued by the Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration are aimed at restarting economic activities in the area ensuring that Covid-19 prevention protocol is followed properly.

“Although the construction has been resumed on a limited scale, the real challenge before the developers is how to cope with the completely changed atmosphere. With the government allowing the migrant workers to return to their native places, the developers apprehend that the labourers presently available at project sites may leave in large numbers and their return is uncertain. The projects may take some more time to effectively take off in full force till sufficient workforce can be brought in.”

Arora further added that the real estate sector which was already in red, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, had no sales, no booking and no collection during the lockdown period ie for the last 45 days, due to which their liabilities have been compounded, and the developers are under severe liquidity crisis. “Salaries and wages of employees have been pending for several months in most of these projects. The mounting liabilities cannot be discharged without financial and administrative support from the central and state governments,” RK Arora said.

As a result of the crisis in real estate sector, more than 1 lakh home buyers, who have collectively taken home loan of Rs 50,000 crore from banks, are waiting for delivery of flats. Besides, about 5 lakh labourers and more than 2 lakh employees directly employed in these projects face prospects of jobloss, say the developers.

The labourers and employees of MSMEs and contractors, which are entirely dependent on these real estate projects, have also been badly-affected. Local businesses that supply construction materials have been adversely hit due to crisis in real estate sector.

Citing all these developments, the real estate forum NAREDCO-UP has approached the government for a stimulus package. Its demands include 100 per cent stamp duty waiver for one year, deferment of all land related dues by one year, waiver of property tax on housing, commercial, malls and hotels for a year, extension of time for payment of statutory dues such as ESIC, EPF etc and reduction of circle rate

In its letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, NAREDCO demanded that the existing project loans from banks and NBFCs should be rescheduled with a moratorium of two years irrespective of status of the account. It also pitched for reduction in GST rates across the board for six months to rekindle the demand.

(Source: India Today)