Click to play videoNew Delhi: Fifty-five-year-old Ram Chandar is a professional welder. Until a few weeks ago he was part of a luxury apartment project in Faridabad. Today, that site is bereft of people or activity. The work has been stalled indefinitely. The builder, Eros group says the project was stopped because of a steep drop in consumer demand.
But far from losing his job, this blacksmith from Gorakhpur has now moved to fixing the railings of a property close by.
"They didn't take me out of work. I work wherever there's job in Eros. I am their main welder," says he.
Like Ram, thousands of other workers on this project have found alernative employment with the same builder. But all around them the real estate sector is facing a crunch. Ghost sites like these have become common all across the National Capital Region.
With builders lacking funds to drive growth, close to 20 per cent of housing and construction projects in north India have been put on hold. It's a crunch that's hit builders, archietects, contractors and suppliers. Ironically though, the lowest in the construction chain - the laborers, have been spared.
Eros' DGM Project, Satish Pal says, "Both skilled and unskilled people are not affected right now, since there is a shortage of these workers. On most projects, there is a 20 per cent to 30 per cent shortage. We are always looking for good, skilled people."
The construction and building business today employs more than 9 million of India's unorganised work force. It's a vast pool of migrant labour, taking home between Rs 130 to Rs 300 a day. The real estate slowdown has not yet hit home, but if the slump continues, the men and women who support the country's infrastructure may just buckle under.
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