A study of the Causes of Schedule overrun in Indian High-rise construction using Relative Importance Index

Construction projects across the world are plagued with time and schedule overruns. Schedule overruns are caused due to a wide range of factors associated to site-related issues to the issues related to payment. Although the principal reasons for construction delays are comparable across different locations within a country, several factors pertaining to local industry, socio-economic issues, cultural effects and project characteristics also contribute to construction delays. Through a series of studies performed across the past few decades, it has been seen that the causes and extent of schedule overruns varies across different countries and no universal causes of delay have been identified. On these grounds, it can also be hypothesised that in a country as diverse as India, the causes of delay may vary across different states and regions. This research tries to ascertain the causes of schedule overrun associated to the various construction project locations in India, identified through a questionnaire survey and analysed using statistical methods. The findings of this study suggest that though there are certain similarities in the delay causes, but there is a difference between their relative importances. There are certain unique causes specific to some location