The construction industry in Coimbatore has been severely impacted due to the increased costs of core construction materials such as jelly, M-sand, and P-sand. The prices of these materials have almost doubled, placing a heavy burden on individual, commercial, industrial, and even government projects.
To recover the construction industry, six organizations—namely the Builders Association of India (Coimbatore), Coimbatore Builders and Contractors Association, Coimbatore Civil Engineers Association, Coimbatore District All Civil Engineers Association, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) – Coimbatore, and Sulur Civil Engineers Association—have come together to form a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to take up the cause with the authorities.
JAC has submitted a representation to Pavan Kumar Giriappanavar, District Collector of Coimbatore, requesting him to raise the issue with the State Government and take steps to bring down the prices of construction materials.
In its representation, the JAC noted that just a few months ago, the per-unit cost of jelly, M-sand, and P-sand stood at Rs3,000, Rs3,600, and Rs4,200, respectively. These prices have now surged to Rs5,000, Rs6,000, and Rs7,000 per unit.
As a result of this steep price increase, the costs of related products such as ready-mix concrete, paver blocks, fly ash bricks, hollow blocks, solid blocks, and other pre-cast materials have also risen significantly.
With many projects stalled due to escalating costs, labourers are being forced to seek alternate livelihoods, which are scarce and difficult to come by. According to Abhishek, Convenor of the JAC, the committee has proposed the creation of a dedicated regulatory authority, similar to RERA, to monitor and stabilize the prices of construction materials and keep them at reasonable levels.
