Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman and managing director SN Subrahmanyan has raised concerns over a severe labour shortage in India’s construction sector, citing workers’ reluctance to migrate as a key challenge. Speaking at the CII South Global Linkages summit in Chennai, he noted that while global economies face heavy migration, India struggles with the opposite issue.

“Labourers are unwilling to move for work due to comfort factors and the availability of various welfare schemes,” he said. Despite L&T employing 400,000 labourers at any given time, labour attrition occurs three to four times a year, requiring the company to hire nearly 1.6 million workers annually.

To manage this, L&T maintains a database of four million workers, tracking their details for quick deployment. However, mobilizing such a vast workforce remains a daunting task. The company has even established a dedicated ‘HR for Labour’ department to address the issue.

Subrahmanyan pointed to government schemes like Jan Dhan accounts, direct benefit transfers, Garib Kalyan Yojana, and MNREGA as factors discouraging migration. “People are finding jobs locally and are not willing to travel for work,” he said, citing a major industrial project in Western India that requires 50,000 labourers.

The labour crunch is delaying critical infrastructure projects, including roads and power plants. Meanwhile, a booming construction sector in West Asia is luring Indian workers with salaries three to four times higher. L&T’s order book in the region stands at $22 billion and is expected to reach $30 billion soon, with ongoing projects in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait.

Even engineers and white-collar professionals are reluctant to relocate, Subrahmanyan noted. “When I joined L&T in 1983, my boss sent me from Chennai to Delhi. Today, if I ask someone to do the same, they just say bye,” he remarked, adding that the IT sector faces an even greater resistance to in-office work.

To combat the labour crisis, L&T has invested in skill development, setting up eight dedicated training institutes and five more in collaboration with the government. These centers train 35,000 workers annually in trades like masonry, welding, and electrical work. “We don’t bond them—they are free to work anywhere. But at least we are building the workforce,” Subrahmanyan said.

With India’s infrastructure ambitions growing, tackling this labour challenge will be crucial for sustained economic growth.