BENGALURU: Several state and national highway projects across the state have slowed down due to two months of curfew and lockdown amid the second Covid-19 wave.
Though the government has allowed highway construction to go on, official sources said it may not pick up pace because of the monsoon.
“This may delay several projects by six months to a year,’’ said PWD and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials.
Aside from labour shortage and rain from June to September, there’s a severe scarcity of raw materials.
The state is working on 18 national highways and over 100 state highways and major district roads.
According to government officials, at least 25,000 workers from different states on highway projects are yet to return.
“Lack of oxygen cylinders for industrial use has severely hampered supply of raw materials.
Work has come to a halt at many sites,’’ said the official.
Until two months ago, nearly 1,000 workers were involved in the eight-lane Mysuru-Bengaluru expressway project, but the workforce is now just 500.
The much-anticipated Bengaluru-Mysuru national highway will be delayed beyond its March 2022 deadline.
There aren’t as many cement-rolling machines and labourers on site as before the lockdown.
“Work is progressing with skeletal staff and we’ll expedite work once labourers return,’’ said B T Sridhara, project director, NHAI, Ramanagara.
An official overseeing sixlaning of the Tumakuru-Shivamogga stretch said they can’t keep up the pace of work because the number of labourers had reduced to 200 from 450 a week ago.
It’s also true for Ballari-Hiriyur highway and Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway.
A government contractor for the project said despite pending work at six sites, he had no labourers.
“With Covid cases steadily decreasing, they’ve started trickling in,” he said, adding that shortage of trained labourers is affecting work most with construction of structures such as bridges, flyovers, and underpasses hampered.
“We’re facing a 20-25% labour shortage but they’re coming back to work.
There may not be much delay,’’ said RK Suryawanshi, general manager (Tech), NHAI, Bengaluru.