Nesco Group offers exhibition centre for accommodating migrant labourers amid lockdown

Mumbai, Apr 3 () Nesco Group of Companies has decided to offer its nearly 2 lakh sqft of space in its exhibition centre in Goregaon for accommodating migrant labourers who are affected due to the closure of infrastructure projects in the megapolis after the lockdown.

Bombay Exhibition Center (BEC), a division of the Nesco Group, has tweaked and set up their exhibition halls to provide shelter and basic necessities to migrants, labourers and daily wagers, it said in a statement.

The management has set up almost 2 lakh sqft of exhibition hall space as a shelter home and has also coordinated with the BMC, local authorities and police to use the space for those who are homeless during this pandemic.

These halls can accommodate over 10,000 people and hence would be a huge relief to in the current crisis, it said.

"Thousands of migrant workmen who have been adversely affected due to closure of infrastructure projects such as Mumbai metro, vital link-roads, coastal road and construction sites, have been left homeless. Although the BMC and the state government have been trying to accommodate them they need much more space," Nesco Chairman Sumant Patel said.

Recently, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is undertaking several infrastructure projects in the megapolis had said that none of the 11,000 labourers working on these sites has migrated out and that they continue to stay in migration camps.

The lockdown has brought almost all economic activities to a halt, with daily wagers, especially migrant workers, employed in construction and other informal sectors forced to return to their respective villages, mostly on foot.

Taking cognisance of the mass exodus, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had directed all state authorities to take care of all migrant labourers and provide them with basic necessities. PSK MRMR