Assessment of Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Nepal’s Construction Sector based on Selected Construction Projects

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global pandemic as declared by World Health Organization (WHO) is causing severe impacts in almost all aspects of life in Nepal. In response to this pandemic, Nepal Government announced a country-wide lockdown from 24th March 2020 and ended on 21st July 2020. Coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented event affecting almost every aspect of the construction sector in Nepal. Hence, this study was carried out to assess the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on Nepal’s construction sector based on selected construction projects. For this purpose, a case study of five ongoing construction projects was taken into account and questionnaires were distributed to responsible officials (client, consultant and contractor) of those projects. This study intended to find out the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on supply-demand trend analysis, cost and time of construction projects. Besides, this study also intends to find the contractual issues and claims associated with COVID-19 lockdown. The study reveals that COVID-19 caused serious disruption to the supply chain. Subsequently, project cost and time increases due to uncertainty regarding the availability of subcontractors/ suppliers/labour. The impact of COVID-19 lockdown however varies with the nature, scale and size of the project. Besides, the study also implies that contractual disputes are likely to increase due to lockdown. Each contract and its conditions have to be carefully analyzed to determine a party’s specific entitlement. There is uncertainty as to when the situation becomes normal and construction work can be carried out with optimum efficiency.