The cost of constructing a house in Gurgaon and other Haryana towns is all set to escalate.

The Haryana government has hiked the license renewal fee for brick kiln owners by 20 per cent, with effect from Oct 1, 2009, resulting in rise in the price of bricks, leading to increase in construction costs.

This would come as an addi- tional blow to those who are either constructing their hous- es or planning to start con- struction, as prices of building material, including bricks have already gone up by 55-60 per- cent during the last 12 months.

The selling price of 5,000- bricks has already gone up by Rs 1,000 since April last year.

Anup Sharma, who is con- structing a house in DLF City lamented that the cost of bricks, cement, stone dust and steel had shot up by 50-60 per cent during the last one year.

“Another increase in the cost of bricks will throw my budget out of gear. A truck loaded with 5,000 bricks would cost me Rs 1,900 in April 2009. I purchased the same number of bricks for Rs 2,900 this month,“ said Sharma.

“Likewise, the cost of aggre- gate and stone dust has already gone up from Rs 18 per sq foot to Rs 28 in the past one year. I have already incurred a huge expenditure on building mate- rial because of the steep price hike,“ he added.

Brick kiln owners say that the cost of producing bricks has multiplied due to hike in input cost such as those incurred on labourers.

“These days, labourers are not available cheap because of short supply. This has added to the cost of bricks,“ said Manoj Yadav, a brick kiln owner.

“Another hike in the lump- sum tax to the tune of 20 per cent will work against the brick kiln industry,“ he added.

Dharmendra Bhandari, man- aging director, Bestech Group said rise in the cost of building material during the last one year had forced his company to begin looking for alternates.

“Since we have sold apartments which were free from cost-escalation conditions, we cannot charge the same from customers. Instead, we went for alternate material, such as bricks made of fly ash which were cheaper but not at par in quality,“ Bhandari said.

“Unfortunately, the cost of even such alternates is now increasing,“ he added.