Out of 32 projects, 18 HDB neighbourhood renewal projects are either fully or partially delayed by a period of over six months.
With the COVID-19 pandemic posing severe challenges to the construction industry, 18 out of 32 Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) projects that are under construction have been delayed – in full or in part – by over six months, revealed the Ministry of National Development (MND).
“All 18 projects have resumed construction works progressively since October 2020, and are estimated to be completed within the next two to three years,” it said in Parliament on Monday (1 November).
It was responding to MP Ng Ling Ling, who asked about the number of NRP projects that have been delayed by over six months and the estimated time to clear the backlog.
On whether support for raw material prices would be extended to contractors working on such projects, MND explained that support for raw material prices is applicable for Housing and Development Board (HDB) Build-To-Order (BTO) projects that “have a contractual provision for protection of price fluctuation of certain materials”.
And since works at NRP projects are generally not as complex, the Town Councils – which implement such projects – “do not include such a contractual provision for the contractors in their tenders”.
Thus, the support measure for raw material prices does not apply to contractors of NRP projects.
“Nonetheless, NRP contractors affected by COVID-19 can tap on other relief measures provided under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act (COTMA), and Town Councils will assess if the relief measures (e.g. prolongation and manpower costs) are applicable to their NRP contracts,” said MND.
The ministry pointed that the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) had also announced on 3 November 2020 the universal Extension of Time of 122 days for private and public sector contracts affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With this, Town Councils can “also review further EOT periods with the contractors accordingly”.
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Cheryl Chiew, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this story, email: cheryl@propertyguru.com.sg.
