Homebuyers in Noida, Ghaziabad irked over delay in projects, builders worried

Real estate projects in satellite cities of Noida and Ghaziabad have hit a roadblock as migrant labourers who left during the lockdown have not yet returned.

Most homebuyers are angry with delay in completion of projects and builders are worried. They claim that they have less than 50 per cent labours working at sites and that is leading to a delay.

“We are continuing with nearly 50 per cent of the required workers. Due to the fear of Covid-19 pandemic, many people are hesitant in returning to work. However, we feel that as the impact of Covid-19 eases, all the workers will return to their jobs,” said R K Arora – Chairman, Supertech Ltd and President, Nardeco UP.

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“During the lockdown, when many labourers returned home, we had signed an MoU with the UP government to provide training and jobs to 2.5 lakh such labourers. We are in process of training nearly one lakh and we hope they will get trained and get a job at various projects soon,” he said.

The slump in construction work is leading to delay in possession of flats, which has irked the homebuyers’ associations.

The homebuyers claim that the builders have already been given a breather of six months but they have not restarted the construction at many sites as over one lakh homebuyers await possession of their flats for many years.

“The builders are actually taking advantage of the situation,” said Abhishek Kumar, president, Noida Extension Flat Owners’Welfare Association (Nefowa).

“There is no construction work going on in many of the flats that were about to be delivered in six months. It looks like they will delay it to over a year or two. The builders always make excuses for not delivering flats on time and this is one of the excuses,” he added.

“The builders are indulged in diverting funds to other projects. The funds we are talking about is the hard-earned money of the homebuyers. I would like to request the government to think from the perspective of the homebuyers.”

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