Maharashtra: As raw material costs skyrocket, builders threaten to halt construction

The apex body of over 3000 builders in Maharashtra CREDAI on Saturday threatened to stop work at its construction sites owing to the steep rise in rates of building materials which may directly impact the prices of flats and delay the possession schedules promised to the buyersIn a strong statement CREDAI Maharashtra President Sunil Furde said that the prices of cement steel sand bricks and all other necessary building materials have been steadily escalating since over a year and have now skyrocketed to unaffordable levelsThe prices of steel the most important building component has doubled from Rs 42000 per tonne to Rs 85000 per tonne now cement bags have shot up from Rs 260 to Rs 400 cost of fourinch brick has increased from Rs 65001K to Rs 80001K sand has escalated from Rs 6000brass to Rs 7500brass while wash sand has gone up from Rs 3800brass to Rs 4800brass Furde saidBesides the cost of all other materials like electric wires fittings tiles pipes sanitaryware fabrications secondary minerals and labour charges have also shot up by around 40 per cent With such high rates we cannot afford to build houses So all CREDAI Maharashtra members are planning to shut down all building activities he saidThe CREDAI has shot off a letter to the Maharashtra government including Deputy CM and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat seeking to verify whether the increase in raw material costs is natural or due to hoarding for profiteering during the pandemic lockdown periodThe CREDAI has also urged the watchdog Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority MRERA to extend the completion deadline for the closed projectsFurde said that apart from the rising costs of raw materials the proposed 1 per cent Metro Cess to be levied on all property purchases in Mumbai Pune Thane and Nagpur from April 1 will further hit consumers planning to buy a house and urged the state government to reconsider or defer the move by at least two yearsThough CREDAI has not indicated a date to shutdown the ongoing projects there are over 10000 active construction sites in Maharashtra employing over a million people as direct or indirect labourersAny such closure of works could result in a minimum delay of six months and the flatbuyers would be saddled with an additional cost of Rs 500600 per square foot throwing haywire their loans and repayment schedules said industry playersFurde said that the prices of raw materials escalated immediately after the first Covid wave in 2020 and has shown an upward trend ever sinceCREDAI barring the MCHI in Mumbai has a total of over 3000 big and small realtors as members spread across 61 cities and urban centres in the stateThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever