Most Common Delays in Construction Projects Worldwide and Steps to Minimize the Unexpected - An Empirical Study

Abstract

The word “delay” can be defined as - “unplanned deferment of a scheduled activity because of something or an occurrence that impedes its commencement or continuation”. Delay usually has time-associated cost effects on a construction project and can be measured in terms of time, money, or a combination thereof. India requires a lot more infrastructure to meet its needs and the current infrastructure is still inadequate. Inadequate infrastructure in both rural and urban areas is a major bottleneck for India's growth. Every government is focusing on this and accordingly forming a set of programs and reforms to address this issue. But the completion of existing projects is getting delayed abruptly and the worst part is that the costs of these infrastructure projects have gone up over the original estimates, which is affecting the country’s economy adversely. The best way to keep a project on track is to prevent (or at least minimize) variances from occurring instead of factoring every possible delay into the schedule. The construction delays can be minimized by allocating the identified common causes to the parties (i.e. Client, Contractor, External Factors) who are responsible, best able to bear and control it. The objective of this study is to identify the most common causes of construction project delays as well as identify the party who is accountable for each such cause, and the steps require to avoid them from occurring so that the impact of delays on construction projects can be minimized. A comprehensive literature review is done, reports published by monitoring agency of government are studied, and finally, the study is analyzed empirically.