The Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) has urged the Prime minister to take prompt notice of the consistently increasing prices of raw materials being used in the construction industry because if unchecked it has the potential to impede the government from achieving the target of five million houses under the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme (NPHS)
In a statement, ABAD Chairman Fayyaz Ilyas said that steel bar price was Rs110,000 per tonne in November last year while currently it was pegged at Rs178,500 per tonne which is a jump of Rs68,000 per tonne over the past 10 months “Sixty per cent of the total cost of a high-rise building consists of cement and steel while this ratio is 30pc to 40pc in a normal residential project. In this situation, the federal government will not be able to fulfill its promise of constructing five million low-cost houses,” the statement said.
He said that cement and steel manufactures had started raising prices of cement and steel bars at a time when construction activities were taking off following the announcement of a special package for the construction industry by the prime minister. This has created great difficulties for builders who are unable to complete projects which are under construction.
