Early April, officials and contractors consciously drove home the message that workers, in the ongoing pandemic, are much better off, and safer, staying in their work site camps than heading to their villages.
By the end of April, around 5,000 highway construction workers were affected by the new coronavirus, according to official data.
In an attempt to ensure that workers had a strong reason to fall behind despite the challenges of COVID-19, contractors working on National Roads Authority of India (NHAI) projects worked overtime. By the end of April, around 5,000 highway construction workers were affected by the new coronavirus, according to official data. Now that number of workers has been reduced to around 2,000 in NHAI's 480 projects involving the construction of a 25,000-kilometer road at more than Rs 5 lakh crore, according to an IE report. In early April, officials and contractors consciously sent the message that workers, in the ongoing pandemic, are much better off and safer staying in their work camps than heading to their villages.
NHAI Chairman SS Sandhu was quoted in the report as saying that road authority contractors and construction companies have learned from last year's experience. The workforce also realizes that if they choose to return to their villages, all of these facilities - such as health insurance, vaccinations, isolation rooms, food, and oxygen ambulances - may not be as readily available, Sandhu said. As the government has insisted that vaccines were the only real protection against COVID-19, the NHAI organized around 700 vaccination camps at its workplaces across the country.
Subsequently, nearly 2,700 beds were made available for Covid-positive workers in isolation rooms installed at all project sites. In addition, ambulances equipped with oxygen were also deployed. NHAI regional offices were activated to coordinate with district administrations and contractors at the project sites. Additionally, for all contractors, COVID-19 testing became routine. The life insurance coverage of NHAI officials was also increased from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.
Officials said that since the hiring of labor is tailored to the needs of the contractor, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of workers hired across the country on any given day. However, NHAI said that contractors have reported only 10-15% fewer workers compared to the end of March this year. According to officials, they said workers who did go to their villages in early April are also being returned by contractors. Sandhu said there has been a positive outlook among workers returning to the project job site and project contractors are facilitating their safe return.
This is because India's top road developers have learned from last year's closure when they lost some of their best months to the road construction pandemic. Despite this, the highway authority had built 4,192 kilometers of national highways in the year 2020-21, the highest so far. The NHAI, aiming to beat the last prosecutor's construction record, has issued instructions to field offices to expedite road construction work, whenever possible, as due to pandemic-related restrictions, the Traffic remains low, the report adds.
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