Manpower crunch hits reconstruction

Acute shortage of manpower accompanied by labour wage hike has made reconstruction even dearer

Sujata Awale

Kathmandu

Kathmandu valley is witnessing an acute shortage of labour in the construction sector following the recent earthquake and frequent aftershocks. The valley being one of the quake affected areas, labours have not returned to work after fleeing the capital. The majority of skilled and general workers in the valley are Indian nationals from Bihar, Kolkata and Orissa while Nepali workers are mostly from quake affected districts like Ramechap, Sindhupalchowk, Dhading and Nuwakot.

“Although this is the peak season for accomplishing road construction and other development works, we could not conduct it properly due to the lack of manpower,” said Sarad Kumar Gauchan, President of Federation of Contractors' Association of Nepal (FCAN). He further said, “Frightened by the devastating quake on frequent aftershocks, the Indian workers have not returned to work in the valley yet.” Citing that they are collecting data on the loss incurred by the sector, he said, “Within a couple of weeks we will publish the data on financial and work loss due to the earthquake.” Gauchan stated, "With the onset of monsoon, we will have to face a tough time completing development work intended for this fiscal-end." According to him, constructions at hundreds of sites in the valley have been affected by the short supply of labour.
While there is already an acute shortage of manpower in the construction sector, the hike in wages of labour has made reconstruction even dearer. “With high demand and low supply, the labour cost has also escalated by almost 100 per cent,” informed Anil Maharjan, Managing Director of Vision Housing and Real Estate Pvt Ltd. According to him, general workers are now demanding Rs 1,000 per day from Rs 600 and skilled workers charge Rs 1,500 per day from Rs 1,000. Informing that most of the Nepali workers are from earthquake affected districts, he said, "Nepali workers have not been able to resume the works due to their family responsibilities while Indians are out of contact."

While the valley needs a huge workforce for demolishing and re-construction, the existing labour crunch will invite more problems in days to come. “Due to lack of general workers, city dwellers are compelled to pay as much as available workers demand. The government should immediately sketch out a policy to retain workers who migrated to gulf and third world countries,” said Maharjan. With the increased labour cost, demolishing a four-storey building costs up to Rs 900,000; a two and a half storey building costs Rs 500,000 and demolishing a rooftop tank costs Rs 25,000. He opined that the government should crack down to resolve the unhealthy practice.

Another contractor Pushkar Balami said, “Although we have less work in recent times, but still we are running out of workers." Citing that the government has imposed ban on construction of new houses, he said, "We don't have much problem for the time being but if the situation continues we will have to face a tough time later.” According to him, majority of his workers hails from Sindhuli and Nuwakot.

“As the construction works have not started yet, it would be baseless to state there is a shortage of workforce,” said Narenath Luitel, President of Central Union of Painters, Plumbers, Electro and Construction Workers-Nepal (CUPPEC). He added, “Since the government has banned all new construction works for the time being, we are focused in relief and resettlement work in affected districts.” Blaming the government for not having proper plan for managing workers, Luitel said, “While there was not much work for workers, the government could have conducted trainings on masonry for seismic resistant technology, which would have been fruitful.”
"Once the government revokes construction, the demand for skilled, semi skilled and general workers will be huge and the government will not have any alternative than to import workers," he said. According to him, the valley used to have 250,000 workers before the earthquake including both Nepalis and Indians. The government has set Rs 360 as daily wage for general workers, Rs 500 for semi-skilled and Rs 1,000 for skilled manpower.

Published  on June 6, 2015, The Himalayan Times