Delhi-NCR projects may get delayed by three months due to the construction ban.

Based on the ban on construction activities in the city to tackle air pollution, builders have stated that home buyers waiting to take possession of their dream house in Delhi-NCR will need to wait for three more months.

The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, (EPCA) had enforced construction ban on last Tuesday, until Monday, when further decisions will be made based on the situation.

Even if the ban is lifted soon, reorganizing the workforce will become a difficult task and many of the projects already shattered by delays in the National Capital Region will have to move their timeline further, the developers stated.

“One day ban is 10 days delay, as work needs to be stopped absolutely and starting it again to the same pace will take time,” says Getamber Anand, chairman of Noida-based developer ATS Infratech. “Arranging construction workers who leave once the ban has been enforced is the greatest problem.”

“We expect the ban to result in a delay of 2-3 months,” said Parveen Jain, Vice-chairman of the National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco).

As per Anarock Property Consultant, more than 540,000 housing units are under different construction phases in NCR. Of these 200,000 units, which were released in 2013 or before, were continuously delayed. This will not affect them by the construction ban much because it has been postponed for a long time.

EPCA had previously restricted the construction and operation of hot mix and stone crushers plant from 6 pm to 6 am for the period of October 26 – 30. After which the ban extended until 10 am from October 31, this stood until November 5 when EPCA enforced a complete ban on construction.

Manoj Gaur, managing director of the Noida-based Gaur Group said, “While developers may be able to reduce the time delay, in the long run, but projects near to completion will certainly be delayed.” “If the buyer goes to the Rear Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in such a case, the reason for the delay by the developer’s will not be accepted.”