Amid inflation, building activities take a big hit

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, May 4

Amid skyrocketing prices of almost all construction material, people engaged in construction activities are finding it difficult to make ends meet as cost escalation has become unbearable.

Tarsem Lal Saini, whose construction company takes contracts of government projects, said: “Contractors were the worst sufferers of spiralling inflation on construction materials. Bound by the agreement, the rates per square feet are fixed, while there has been nearly 35 per cent cost escalation in the last three months.” Consequently, they are incurring huge financial losses. Though they have been writing letters to the department concerned to review the rates, it has not elicited a favourable response so far.

He said market analysts attribute the rise to the Russia-Ukraine war, constant increase in fossil fuel and coal prices.

In the local retail market, steel is available at Rs 80 per kg, which was available at Rs 65 over three months ago, both fine and coarse sand are being sold at nearly Rs 4,000 per 100 cubic feet, which was available at about Rs 2,000 a few months ago. Similarly, the cost of a lot of 1,000 superior quality bricks rose from Rs 5,500 to Rs 7,500.

Davinder Singh, a building contractor who takes up housing projects, said the cost escalation of building materials caused a tremendous fall in the construction activity in comparison to the corresponding period last year. He said the government should release its new sand mining policy to kick off quarrying which could bring down its price at least.

He said people with a small budget had either slowed down construction or abandoned it midway for the time being. “Common people are keeping their fingers crossed for the prices of construction material to normalise,” he said.

Construction cost heads north

• In the local retail market, steel is available at Rs 80 per kg, which was available at Rs 65 over three months ago
• Both fine and coarse sand are being sold at nearly Rs 4,000 per 100 cubic feet, which was available at about Rs 2,000 a few months ago
• Similarly, the cost of a lot of 1,000 superior quality bricks has risen from Rs 5,500 to Rs 7,500