Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 8, No. 5, 2018, 3369-3372 3369 www.etasr.com Akhund et al.: Contributing Factors of Time Overrun in Public Sector Construction Projects Contributing Factors of Time Overrun in Public Sector Construction Projects Muhammad Akram Akhund Department of Civil Engineering, ISRA University, Hyderabad, Pakistan akhund42@gmail.com Hafiz Usama Imad Department of Civil Engineering, ISRA University, Hyderabad, Pakistan usama.imad@isra.edu.pk Nafees Ahmed Memon Department of Civil Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan nafees.memon@faculty.muet.edu.pk Fida Hussain Siddiqui Department of Civil Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan fida.siddiqui@faculty.muet.edu.pk Ali Raza Khoso Department of Civil Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan aliraza.khoso@faculty.muet.edu.pk Abbas Ali Panhwar Sindh Irrigation Department, Sindh, Pakistan abbasalipanhwar@gmail.com Abstract—Time overrun is a major issue in construction projects. Its causes vary, depending upon the nature and size of the project. Developing countries are more susceptible to this problem due to limited resources and lack of managerial skills. This paper focuses on the identification and classification of time overrun factors in public sector projects in Pakistan. Data was collected by the use of a questionnaire given to different professionals in the construction field. Average index (AI) was used to determine each factor’s relative importance. Results indicate that financial difficulties faced by constructor, inadequate planning and scheduling, financial difficulties faced by client, delays in payment by the client, delays in decision making by the client, design mistakes, frequent design changes, material shortage, incompetent sub-constructor assigned by the constructor, poor site management and supervision and inadequate constructor’s experience are the most significant factors of time overrun in public sector construction projects in Pakistan. This study aims to be useful in addressing the issue of time overrun in the construction industry. Keywords-time overrun; construction industry; public sector I. INTRODUCTION In Pakistan, the construction industry is growing and contributing significantly to the economic growth of the country. Although Pakistan is spending a significant amount of money on the construction industry, still it faces several issues and serious challenges [1], with frequent project time overrun being one of the major ones. Project time overrun can be defined as the exceeding of project completion time from the anticipated and estimated duration of the project [2]. Time overrun in public sector construction projects is a global issue. This tendency is augmented in developing countries. In an estimate, time and cost overruns are about more than 100% of the estimated time and cost. [3-5]. It has been identified that due to poor risk management applications, time overrun is a common issue in construction projects [6-7]. It has an adverse effect on the owner, consultant and constructor in terms of relationships development, issue of cash flow, distrust, legal actions and a general feeling of unease toward one other. II. REASONS OF TIME OVERRUN Author in [1] presents the significances of schedule delay in construction. Authors in [8] determined 83 factors of time overrun in construction projects of Hong Kong. In Nigeria, 61 building construction projects were considered as a case study in [9], in which delay and budget overrun were found as the most responsible factors of time overrun. Authors in [10], conducted a research in Malaysian construction industry, and identified the effects and causes of delays: poor planning, contractor’s poor site management, poor constructor experience, insufficient funds provided from client on the completed work, issues with sub-constructors, shortage of materials at site, equipment availability and failure, labor supply, mistakes during execution. Author in [11], studied the most common cases of time overrun in road construction projects in Palestine. Results revealed that the most significant common possible risks occur due to overrun factors such as constructor’s financial status, delays in payment by the client, breakdown in the marketing shares of West Bank and political conditions, poor communication among construction stakeholders, poor equipment efficiency and high competition in bids. After the Egyptian revolution, a case study [12], highlighted 99 causative factors of time overrun. From determined causes, the top most ranked factors were poor funding, material bribes and tactics policies, equipment shortage at the construction site, poor project scheduling, poor financial control on site, poor site management and supervision, rework due to mistakes and errors, poor planning and inadequate constructors. Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 8, No. 5, 2018, 3369-3372 3370 www.etasr.com Akhund et al.: Contributing Factors of Time Overrun in Public Sector Construction Projects Authors in [13] studied the schedule delay in construction projects of Gwalior, India. The most important factors causing time overrun was poor planning and scheduling, poor documentation work, delay in material delivery and poor work progress. Similarly, authors in [14] studied the causes and schedule delays in Indian construction projects. The findings of their research were: poor constructor’s work and experience, poor risk management system, poor coordination and communication among client, constructor sub-constructor, consultant, designer, worker and supplier, delay in material delivery, poor planning and scheduling, poor supervision and site management, poor managerial skills, unqualified labor, delay in progressive payment, delay in sub-constructors work, change in orders from client and poor client’s experience and involvement. Authors in [15] identified 12 major causes of delays in Nigerian construction industry. The construction sector in Bahrain is also facing the problem of time overrun which is caused by the shortage of manpower, poor communication between the stakeholder’s, poor planning and scheduling, inexperienced personnel, poor supervision and site management, difficulties in project financing [4]. Authors in [16] investigated bridge construction projects of Pune and found insufficient crane capacity, unavailability of skilled labor, design issues, labor issues, conventional method of bar cutting and bending, delay in procurement of bearing plate, poor site layout resulting in poor labor productivity and shortage of concrete as major issues affecting project time. Authors in [17] conducted a questionnaire survey to determine the causes of time delay of road over bridge (ROB) in India. From the list of 29 different causes the study identified, the top 5 factors identified as responsible for causing time delay and cost overrun of ROB construction projects were land acquisition, many stakeholders, network displacement, legal requirements, and claims and disputes. Authors in [18] also conducted a questionnaire survey and personal interviews to analyze factors affecting scheduling performance in Ethiopian construction projects through the engineers’ perspective. From the list of 35 time overrun attributes, they identified 4, namely: conflict among project participants, poor human resource management and project manager’s ignorance and lack of knowledge which cause significant delay. Similarly, authors in [19], based on questionnaire survey identified the top 10 delay factors in Norwegian construction industry. Most of the existing research has been carried out for private sector projects in different countries. No such research work has been reported regarding the public sector construction projects in Pakistan and this research fills this gap. This study will help the stakeholders of the industry to deal with project time overrun in upcoming projects. Hence, the purpose of this research is to identify the most significant factors of time overrun in public section construction projects in Pakistan. This research study identifies the common factors of time overrun which can be thought of and so anti measures can be planned in order to minimize cost overrun in public projects of Pakistan. III. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Various reasons which contribute to time overrun in construction projects were identified from the literature review in the previous section. Among the list of identified factors responsible for time overrun, the related factors to Pakistan’s construction industry were separated via a preliminary survey. As a part of the preliminary survey, un- structured interviews of constructors, consultants, clients, and experts were conducted to finalize factors. A questionnaire was then prepared for data collection. The finalized questionnaire was distributed among the experienced personnel involved in public sector construction projects of Pakistan. The respondents were asked to rank the significance of these factors on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (extremely significant) to 5 (not significant). The level of significance has been calculated with the statistical software package SPSS 20.0 through average index (AI) method [20, 21]. The AI obtained for each factor represents the importance or significance of the said factor as per given criteria: 4.50