Members of Military Engineers Services (MES) Builders Association of India have urged the government to provide them compensation for the unprecedented rise in the prices of construction materials. They said that around 400 families of contractors are facing financial hardships and are in dire need of government intervention to resolve their issues by price escalation.
Addressing a press conference at BAI Visakhapatnam office here on Saturday, Chairman of MES Builders Association C. Bala Satish said that due to the pandemic followed by Russia-Ukraine war, construction industry has been badly affected. MES Builders take up all civil, electrical, fabrication, marine structures and number of contract works of the Army, Navy and Air Force. He said that the contractors are facing hardships to carry out their works due to unprecedented increase in prices of various commodities right from iron, cement, steel, sand, petrol, labour, from about 25 to 30 %.
“We urge the Union government to address the price escalation issue by paying us the actual costs. If the price before escalation was ₹100 and it is now gone up to ₹200, we should be paid ₹200 and we are ready to forego the profit margin,” Mr. Bala Satish said.
Mr. Bala Satish said that since COVID-19 pandemic, there is a shortage in manpower/labour. The situation of the contractors is such that they cannot stop work due to national security and continuing the work is adding up to their financial burden and pulling them into a debt trap.
“Similarly to the farmers, the contractors may also end their lives by suicide in the near future if the situation continues. Already a contractor ended his life in Visakhapatnam some months ago. The government should save us by addressing the price escalation issue,” he said.
“In Visakhapatnam alone, we are taking up number of projects worth ₹6,000 crore. The escalation cost for these projects could be around ₹1,800 crore, which is about 30%,” he said.
He also added that their association members have submitted representations to MP M.V.V. Satyanarayana, Chief Engineers from Eastern Naval Command, Indian Coast Guard (ICG) urging them to resolve their issues.
Member of MES Builders Association Venkateswarlu said that in Visakhapatnam Branch alone, there are about 170 contractors and around 375 builders who were affected along with their families.
