Causes of Delay in Indian Construction Industry

Abstract

Delays in a construction project can be regarded as a failure. This paper aims to investigate the causes of delay in Indian construction projects undertaken by private, government and nongovernmental organizations. In view of this 45 causes of delay were identified and developed the questionnaire for the quantitative confirmation of the most causes of delay. Consequently the questionnaire was distributed to construction professionals like Managers, Engineers and others. Subsequently the collected data was analyzed using statistical tool and the factors were measured and ranked under each group by importance index for various construction professionals. The results suggest that delays are mainly due to shortage of labours, shortage of construction materials and extra works (rework and change orders). The resources like manpower and materials are having highest contribution of about 24% compared to other sources. However this paper presents recommendations for a better project management techniques & procedures which can be adopted during conceptual & detailed planning phases of the project in order to minimize the construction delay.