Ranking of the Causes of Delay for Private Sector Industrial Construction Projects in Indian Context

Abstract

Delays occur commonly in construction projects. The problem of project delays is a fact that occurs mostly in
Indian construction industry. Indian construction sector has not escaped from the problem of time overrun. Delays in
construction can bring about various changes in a task, for examplelate completion,lost efficiency, acceleration,
expanded expenses and contract termination. Hence it is fundamental to study and break down reasons for construction
delays. Present study lives up to identification andranking of reasons ofdelay in private sector industrial construction
projects in Indian context. This paper describes the causes of delays in private sector industrial construction projects
ofIndian construction industry. Total 73 causes were identified under 9 major groups. The absolute 77 number of
respondents includes of 22 developers, 27 contractors and 28 architects who took part in this field survey.This
paper proposes a way to deal with complete ranking of reasons of delay by two distinct t echniques: Relative importance
index and Importance index based on degree of severity and degree of frequency. Results show that out of top
10 factors total 6 factors were common in ranking by both techniques. They wereShortage of labours,Poor site
management and supervision by contractor, Delay in progress payments by owner, Ineffective planning and scheduling
of project by contractor, Difficulties in financing project by contractor, Poor judgement in estimating time and resources.
Moreover, by both techniques labour related factors ranked first while equipment related factor was considered having
least effect on delay as it is ranked last. It is trusted that the discoveries of the paper will help the stakeholders to follow
up on discriminating causes and further attempt to lessen delay of their projects.