Realtors in Mangaluru exploring option of chartering flights for labourers

Mangaluru: The easing oflockdown norms has unleashed frenetic economic activity, with all sectors looking to recoup the enormous losses they sustained owing to the crisis. The construction sector, which bore the brunt of the lockdown, is now racing against time to meet deadlines. However, the labour-intensive sector is also coping with the vacuum in workforce owing to the exodus of migrant workers from Karnataka.
Consequently, stakeholders in the construction industry are now looking at ways to get the labourers who fled the urban centres to return to their homes, mostly in other states, when the Centre relaxed restrictions on travel. Keen on completing projects on time, realtors in Mangaluru are looking to charter flights to get labourers from other states.
President of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai), Mangaluru Naveen Cardoza said that workers from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounted for nearly 90% of the construction workforce. “Skilled labourers like carpenters and benders are mostly from West Bengal. We had expected that the workers would be back here in July. We had thought that train services would resume. Since it is likely to be delayed further and we are under immense pressure to complete our projects on time, we are exploring other options to get labourers back,” Cardoza told TOI.
He said that five labourers were flown in to Mangaluru via Bengaluru as part of an experimental run. “This week, depending on availability of flights, five more workers are expected to arrive. While those who are here are now in quarantine, we have set up similar facilities on our sites to house those yet to arrive,” said Cardoza, who added that he was conferring with a private carrier to ferry 72 labourers to Mangaluru.
Cardoza said that most labourers had returned home seized by panic. Nearly half of his 300-strong labour force on one of his sites returned home, he added. “No matter how hard we tried to convince them, they thought they were going to die and said they preferred to die at home. But they are keen on returning now. They are in contact with the facilitator, who, in turn, is in touch with us. Many labourers have intimated to us their inability to travel,” Cardoza added.
In fact, even before the world had heard of Covid-19, realtors had chartered flights to ferry labourers if the situation demanded.