Mumbai (Maharashtra): The state government's dream project of connecting Mumbai to Nagpur via road through Samrudhi Mahamarg has been hit hard due to migration of labourers. In two months, about 10,500 workers have returned to their hometowns. As a result, the pace of work on the project has slowed down and now the cost of the project is likely to increase.
This project was undertaken to make the journey from Mumbai to Nagpur super fast. Accordingly, work on this project had begun. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is keen on completing this project as soon as possible which is why work is going on even during the lockdown. However, the pace of work has now slowed down.
By February 2020, 20,000 workers were working in 16 packages of the project. A large number of them were migrant workers. Migrant labour began to decline after the Coronavirus crisis and the lockdown began. The labourers started returning to their villages. The number of labourers working on this project came down to 14,450 labourers on April 14th. Now that the workers have been allowed to go to the village, the number of workers has further reduced by 5,000.
According to a review by MSRDC on May 14th, 9500 out of 20,000 workers were working on the project. Asked about this, Anil Kumar Gaikwad, Co-Managing Director, MSRDC, confirmed shortage of 10,500 labourers. The pace of work has slowed down due to the departure of labourers but despite this, work will continue, he said.
At the moment, work will be carried out with the available manpower. Gaikwad concluded saying that there will be a delay in the completion of the project but that is bound to happen as the crisis everyone facing is huge as well.
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