A sleeper bus engaged by Marian Projects Private Limited (MPPL) to ferry 35 migrant labourers from Malda district in West Bengal, reached Mangaluru late Monday night.
The bus which left Mangaluru on July 18 covered a whopping 5,100 kms and the expenses incurred in bringing back the labourers exceeded Rs 2 lakh, according to the builder Naveen Cardoza.
The project of a 23-floor high-rise building with 300 apartments, 100 offices was hit hard due to the non-availability of labourers, who had returned to their native villages in Malda district, situated close to the Bangladesh border, following the lockdown announced by the Union government, to contain the spread of the pandemic.
During the lockdown, 175 labourers of the project had returned to their homes. About 30,000 labourers from Mangaluru had returned to their native villages in different parts of the country during the lockdown.
Recently Naveen had arranged the flight tickets of five expert masons from Kolkata to Bengaluru. Their airfares and travel expenditure were borne by Naveen, who is also chairman of CREDAI, Mangaluru.
Published 28 July 2020, 06:34 IST