Labour shortage eases as migrant workers return.

Acute labour shortage in the city during the summer is a thing of past as a large number of migrant workers have returned from their native villages. Their migration had badly hit the construction and industrial sectors. MahaMetro director project Mahesh Kumar said the number of workers employed by Nagpur Metro contractors was over 5,000 in December 2019. “By March this year, just before the lockdown, the number reduced to 2,800 as workers went for the rabi harvest. When the trains started during lockdown, the number dropped to 1,200. Now around 4,700 labourers are working on the project and we are not facing labour shortage anymore,” he told TOI. Abhijit Jichkar, project officer of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said things are manageable now. “The labour shortage is not as bad as summer. Our contractors have managed to source workers from here and there,” he said. C Shegaonkar, president of MIDC Industries Association (MIA), Hingna, said many migrant labourers have returned to the city even though many still are in their native villages. “Many skilled labourers, who can get work near their villages, have not returned but still industries are not facing much of a workforce shortage,” he added.