Login   /  Register

Updated At: Sep 02, 2022 07:46 AM (IST)

The prices of construction material have skyrocketed, hitting hard building activities in the state.

The sand has become three times costlier, while the rates of crusher stone and steel have increased up to 50 per cent. Bricks have become costlier by 40 per cent and cement by almost 30 per cent in the past fortnight.

Raising the issue here on Thursday, a large number of builders under the banner of Ludhiana Builders’ Association threatened to launch an agitation if the state government failed to come up with a new mining policy and appoint a regulator to fix the prices of construction raw material.

Blaming the present dispensation for the raw material going out of common man’s reach, they said the sudden spike in prices has brought most of the ongoing construction activities to a standstill.

According to the association, the prices of white sand have gone up from Rs 13-15 to Rs 40 per cubic foot, accounting for an increase of 167 to 208 per cent, crusher stone from Rs 27-28 to Rs 38-40 per cubic foot, which was up 41 to 43 per cent, and coarse sand rates have increased from Rs 35-36 to Rs 52-55 per cubic foot, accounting for 49 to 53 per cent hike.

Apart from these aggregates, the cost of steel has been raised from Rs 48,000 to Rs 72,000 per metric tonne.

Similarly, the prices of cement have been raised from Rs 275 to Rs 350 per bag, accounting for an increase of over 27 per cent while the rate of bricks has spiralled from Rs 5,200 to Rs 7,000 per 1,000 units, which was a hike of almost 35 per cent.

“The prices of sand and crusher stone aggregates have touched the sky due to non-implementation of mining policy by the government,” association president Ajit Singh said.

He said the Mining Department was not allowing anybody to do mining in the absence of a policy, due to which the ongoing construction activities had been badly hit in the state and the builders were forced to arrange these materials from neighboring states at much higher rates.

“Moreover, it has led to the black marketing of construction material in the region as the cost of white sand has doubled in just two weeks,” association general secretary Rajan Patial claimed.

He said the Covid outbreak, global recession and stalled infrastructure development was already posing a major challenge to the building construction work in the state and the builders were passing through a bad phase.

“Such situation will force the closure of the construction profession, following which lakhs of workers will lose jobs,” association vice-president Prem Pal Singh said.

The Prime Minister says side effects of once-in-a-century pa...

The woman was out with her boyfriend on a two-wheeler when t...

Out of 68 seats, 67 have been declared with only Hamirpur pe...

All Chinese Communist Party (CPC) meetings are held in extre...

The bus passengers, mostly labourers, were going home for Di...

The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising four eminent persons as trustees.

The Tribune, the largest selling English daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the paper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.

The Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).

Remembering Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia

Designed and Developed by: Grazitti Interactive