Workers' migration hits Bharuch projects

Bharuch: Thousands of men and women working as contract labourers in the industrial units of Dahej, Vilayat and Ankleshwar have fled to their native places in other states, scared of the havoc wreaked by the recent heavy rainfall in Gujarat.
The migration of the contract labourers has severely affected civil, fabrication and erection, housekeeping, loading and unloading of goods and transportation work at the units.
Director, SMP Construction, Amit Patel said, "It is a huge loss to the the construction industry in the region. The migration of labour force is a major challenge for us as we will not be able to complete the ongoing projects on time."
At least 20 units are setting up plants in Dahej and Vilayat. The commissioning of all these projects will be delayed by two months, industry sources said.
A manpower supplier Hasim Mukhiya said, "More than 90 per cent of workers are from Bihar and Jharkhand. We have sent our supervisors to these and other states to get new teams of workforce. It will take 15 days to start the activities."
A mukadam of a workforce of 200 Rakesh Singh said, "The entire workers colony at Vilayat near Grasim's project got flooded on Sunday last. Many workers lost their small savings. Accommodating them immediately had become a problem so they left. Now there are hardly 50 workers at the colony."