New Delhi, May 4 (IANS): Real estate players say that few more days and clarity would be required for smooth resumption of construction activities as allowed by the Centre.

Further, as relaxations come into effect from Monday, availability of raw material is a major hurdle faced by the developers.

Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said: "It is just the first day of further relaxations and as expected, there are bound to be few ambiguities and teething issues. The very fact that there is disparity in the list of areas falling under red, orange or green zones between the Central and state governments itself will lead to some confusion.

It may still take a few days for all construction activities to resume business as usual, he added.

Puri told IANS that developers would need smooth supply of raw materials such as steel, cement, sand, bricks among others for construction activity to resume at their usual pace.

Amit Modi, Director, ABA Corp, said that without resumption of the whole supply chain, construction activity may come to a halt in some time.

"For the time being, while we are going ahead within the construction activities in the interest of labour and the revival of the economic cycle, we hope that the supply chain also gets resurrected within the time frame of the next few weeks," he said.

Further, migration of workers to their native places also is another obstacle for the resumption of the construction activities, several market players said.

As per Anarock's estimates, there were over 4.4 crore labourers working in the construction sector before the lockdown of which out of which over 80 per cent or around 3.52 crore are migrant labourers.

"Considering the situation over the last few weeks and presently wherein there has been a large exodus of migrants from urban areas, labour shortage could be an issue for the real estate sector in the near term or until Covid-19 is wiped out completely," Puri told IANS.

He further said that while many developers have already been taking extra care of their workforce by providing them either full salaries, food, medical help or sanitisation products, there is a need on the part of the respective state governments also to provide an extra comfortable environment for them to continue work and not return back to their native town.

Vikas Bhasin, the CMD of Saya Homes, said: "Little doubt, the migration of stranded labourers to home town will have a bearing."

He further said that as some economic activities have already started even in red zones and the incentive to go back to home town has reduced considerably. As such, the impact will not be very substantial, Bhasin added.