CHALLENGES OF CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES IN INDIA: LESSONS ...

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CHALLENGES OF CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES IN INDIA: LESSONS FORM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

By

AKSHAY GOEL

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2016

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© 2016 Akshay Goel

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To my loving family

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express deepest gratitude to the committee chair, Dr. Raymond

Issa for the continuous support as the research would not have been possible without

his guidance. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Rui Liu and Dr.

Costin. The thesis would also not have been possible without the support of Nathan

Blinn because of the valuable inputs and support throughout the research. I would also

like to acknowledge my parents, brother and friends for their unequivocal support and

encouragement. I am grateful to my parents for the indispensable sacrifices they have

made for my education in their entire life.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... 4

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 9

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 10

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 12

Objective of the Study ............................................................................................. 12

Research Methodology ........................................................................................... 13 Organization ........................................................................................................... 13

2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 15

Differences in Construction Practices ..................................................................... 16 Project Delivery Method .......................................................................................... 19

Population Difference.............................................................................................. 20 Bidding scenario ..................................................................................................... 22

Bonds ............................................................................................................... 22 Insurance .......................................................................................................... 22

Energy Efficiency .................................................................................................... 23

Construction safety ................................................................................................. 24

Labor Wages .......................................................................................................... 25

Construction Industry Development ........................................................................ 27 India’s National Economy ....................................................................................... 28

3 RESEARCH METHODOLGY ................................................................................. 30

Survey Questionnaire Design ................................................................................. 30 Construction Practices in India ............................................................................... 31 Construction Practices in United States of America ................................................ 34

4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS .................................................................................... 38

Industry Survey Analysis ......................................................................................... 38 Construction Practices in the United States of America .......................................... 49

5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................................... 59

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Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 59 Recommendations .................................................................................................. 60

APPENDIX

A INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL .................................................... 62

B QUALTRICS SURVEY ............................................................................................ 63

LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 69

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 71

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LIST OF TABLES

Table page 2-1 High rise building in USA .................................................................................... 17

2-2 High rise building in India ................................................................................... 17

2-3 OSHA Inspections in 2014 ................................................................................. 24

2-4 Comparison of Labor Rates in India and USA .................................................... 26

2-5 Investment in the Construction Industry ............................................................. 28

4-1 Type of work performed by the respondent’s company ...................................... 42

4-2 Analysis of Company Size. ................................................................................. 43

4-3 Analysis of Importance of usage of Information Technology .............................. 45

4-4 Percentage of project cost spent for Safety Equipment ...................................... 47

4-5 Hourly Rate of Unskilled Labour ......................................................................... 48

4-6 Factors for the betterment of the industry ........................................................... 49

4-7 Type of work performed by the company ........................................................... 52

4-8 Analysis of Company Size .................................................................................. 53

4-9 Importance of Information Technology in construction ....................................... 54

4-10 Analysis of the Percentage of project cost spent for safety equipment. .............. 57

4-11 Hourly rate of unskilled labor in their company. .................................................. 58

4-12 Additional Factors included in Construction Management Curricula ................... 58

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure page 2-1 Tunnel Boring Machines used in DMRC (New Delhi) ......................................... 18

2-2 Large Precast Piers used for Bridges ................................................................. 18

4-1 Part of the world the company operates in (n=48) .............................................. 39

4-2 Primary region of operation (n=22) ..................................................................... 40

4-3 Primary Role within the company (n=22) ............................................................ 41

4-4 Years of experience in the construction industry (n=22) ..................................... 42

4-5 Type of work performed by the respondents’ company ...................................... 43

4-6 Type of Delivery Method (n=22) ......................................................................... 44

4-7 Type of Software for Planning Phase (n=22) ...................................................... 45

4-8 Inclusion of Worker’s Compensation (n=22) ....................................................... 46

4-9 Use of Sustainable practices (n=22) ................................................................... 47

4-10 Primary Region of operation (n=26) ................................................................... 49

4-11 Primary Role within their Company (n=26) ......................................................... 50

4-12 Number of years working in the construction industry (n=26) ............................. 51

4-13 Type of work performed by the company (n=26) ................................................ 52

4-14 Type of Delivery method used by the company (n=26) ...................................... 54

4-15 Software used for Planning Phase (n=26) .......................................................... 55

4-16 Inclusion of Worker’s Compensation (n=26) ....................................................... 56

4-17 Use of sustainable practices in the company (n=26) .......................................... 56

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BIM Building Information Modelling

BOCW Building and Other Construction Worker Act

DMRC Delhi Metro Rail Corporation

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GNP Gross National Product

GOI Government of India

IGBC Indian Green Building Council

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Department

OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration

PFAs Personal Fall Arrest System

UFIRB University of Florida Institutional Review Board

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Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Construction Management

CHALLENGES OF CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES IN INDIA: LESSONS FORM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

By

Akshay Goel

December 2016

Chair: R. Raymond Issa Co-Chair: Rui Liu Major: Construction Management

The construction industry everywhere faces problems and challenges. However,

in the developing countries, these difficulties and challenges are present along a

general situation of social and economic stress and long term resource shortages. The

construction industry as a whole is the world’s largest industrial employer, with an

estimated 111 million employees, accounting for approximately 28% of all industrial

employment. The Indian economy has witnessed a remarkable progress in the past few

decades. The Construction industry of India is an important indicator of the development

as it creates investment opportunities across various related sectors. The technology

which has been in construction industry for about 35 years in United States of America

is still something very new to the Indian Industry. For example, use of Building

Information Modeling (BIM) is very prominent in the Construction Industry of the USA. In

India, there are software like Estimator, Staad Pro or AutoCAD being used but to a very

limited segment of the works. The research looks into the challenges faced by the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction_industry

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construction industries in developing nations mainly India and will conclude some of the

technologies for the betterment of the industry.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Construction is the second largest economic activity after agriculture in India. It

accounts for 11% of India's GDP and has generated employment for about 33 million

people in the country (Ramaswamy et al., 2015). The initiatives taken for infrastructure

development in past decades, has provided an opportunity for the construction industry

to undertake a number of large projects. In the path of development, the industry dealt

with chronic problems such as time and cost overruns, low productivity, poor worker

safety, inferior working conditions, lack of skilled manpower etc. The issues associated

with the construction industry have, so far, only been discussed to a significant extent in

terms of developed countries. The research addresses some of these issues and

analyzes them in context of developing countries. The aim of the study is to improve the

construction standards of developing nations and India in particular.

The paper begins with stating some key factors of construction industry of India

that makes it lag behind its international competitors. In the penultimate section, the

analysis is done based on a survey questionnaire with a consideration of further analysis

by researchers.

Objective of the Study

The study is aimed at improving the level of the construction standards of

developing countries to that of the developed countries helping in the economy’s

appraisal by creating a positive effect on employment growth.

The scope of the study is to improve industrial standards in the construction

industry and the impact of these changes on the quality of employment in the industry of

developing countries. The coverage of the report is limited to mainly two countries i.e.

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data and examples have been drawn from United States of America and India. The

report is limited to construction practices only and factors like political issues and

inflation are not included.

Some of the questions that this study will attempt to answer, in order to satisfy

the aim are:

How many years would it take India to match the industry standards of developed countries?

What all techniques can India adopt to make the industry standards high?

What training methods need to be applied for betterment of construction industry workers?

Research Methodology

The methodology adopted for the study is quantitative which includes the

statistical analyses of the responses recorded. To conduct new research it is important

that we look at the research done in the past on similar topics. The sections of the

survey are studied by analysing different aspects/phases of construction. The study

encompasses the following phases:

An overview of publicly available information in developed countries like United States of America about the industry and related areas;

A survey of sector enterprises by means of questionnaire surveys using UF Qualtrics WWW based software;

Analysis of all information and identification of change factors in the industry;

Assessment of the training needs in the industry for its upraise in future.

Organization

The research is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction

about the study. The objective and the scope of the study is also included in this

section.

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Chapter 2 includes an extensive literature review that has been conducted for the

research. The literature review includes some major differences between the

construction practices of the United States of America and India

Chapter 3 includes the methodology adopted for conducting the survey. The

survey includes twenty-seven questions and is distributed throughout United States of

America and India to the industry professionals.

Chapter 4 provides the detailed analysis of the results of the survey mentioned in

the previous chapter. The results of the anonymous responses are analyzed statistically

and represented graphically using MS Excel. Correlating the responses for different

question was important in the achieving the aim of the research.

Chapter 5 includes the conclusions inferred from the detailed analyses of the

survey conducted in previous chapter and presents recommendations for future

research studies in the several areas.

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The challenges in the construction industry are not uniform throughout the world,

especially, in developing countries which use labor intensive techniques that leads to a

number of fatalities on the construction site. The reasons behind the number of fatalities

include governmental instability, lack of equipment, and shortage of skilled labor.

Extensive literature review was done to better understand the existing information

technology in the both the countries i.e. India and USA. The scope of research work

being done on challenges has been limited to mostly developed countries. Currently,

there is very little documentation on the research conducted on this topic for the Indian

Construction industry.

The modern world can be divided into three different parts on the basis of Human

Development Index (HDI) (World Health Organization, 2016). The Human Development

Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income per capita

indicators. The first part consists of developed countries like United States of America,

Japan, and Canada having very human development ratio. The second part consists of

developing nations that have medium human development index. The third part consists

of the under developed nations that need extensive developments among the countries

and have very low human index. For this study, the countries of the first two parts are

referred to as developed nations and the countries that come under the third category

are referred to as developing nations.

A lot of waste has been generated in the Indian construction industry. Policies

have to be reformed in order to recycle the waste generated in the construction sector in

India. Ramaswamy (2015) found that the total cost of waste calculated as a percentage

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of project cost, varies from 5.38% to 14.70% among the six ongoing projects taken up

for the study. From research by Burati (1992), the deviation cost of quality in advanced

economies has been found to be at least 12% of the total project cost.

Hence, a considerable amount of waste is generated on Indian construction sites and

there are still opportunities to improve the project performance by implementing lean

principles.

An extensive literature review of the references stated at the end of the paper

yielded some of the important differences in construction practices between the USA

and India:

Differences in Construction Practices

The first difference one observes by just going through a general visit both countries is

the elevation of the buildings. The highest buildings in the USA range from an elevation

of about 1100 to 1700 ft. and are not limited to any particular region of the country. Where

as in India the highest buildings have a maximum elevation of about 600 to 800 ft. and

are mostly limited to a very few cosmopolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Table 2-1

shows some high rise buildings in United States of America. Table 2-2 shows some of

the high rise buildings in India.

New technologies and advancements are more prominent in a developed country

like the USA but are very difficult to bring into the Indian construction Industry. For

example the use of Tunnel Boring Machines dates back to 1982 in the USA in Little

Skull Mountains in Nevada however it still remains something very new to the Indian

construction industry. Its usage started very lately in India in Some Himalayan tunneling

projects, Hydro projects and the metro rail project. The technology which has been

there for about 35 years is still something very new to the Indian Industry

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Table 2-1. High rise building in USA

Building Name Location Height Number of floors

One World Trade Center

New York City 1776 ft. 104

Willis tower Chicago 1451 ft. 108

432 Park view New York City 1396 ft. 96

Trump International Hotel and Tower

Chicago 1389 ft. 98

Empire State building

New York City 1250 ft. 102

Table 2-2. High rise building in India

Building Name Location Height Number of floors

Imperial Tower 1 Mumbai 833 ft. 61

Imperial Tower 2 Mumbai 833 ft. 61

Ahuja Towers Mumbai 817 ft. 55

World Crest Mumbai 732 ft. 57

DB Enclave Mumbai 689 ft. 52

Large-size precast piers are used in construction of flyovers that are to be closed

or dismantled for the construction work over flyover (Figure 2-2). These massive

structure are transported through large cranes so as to prevent restriction to flow of

traffic (Figure 2-2).

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Figure 2-1. Tunnel Boring Machines used in DMRC (New Delhi) (Source: www.iitk.in)

Figure 2-2. Large Precast Piers used for Bridges (Source: www.iitk.in)

Use of Building Information Modeling (BIM), drones for scanning, high end

software like Autodesk Revit and Navisworks Manage are very prominent in the

Construction Industry of the USA. In addition, special focus on planning and project

control using proper scheduling techniques and software like Primavera P6 is done to

empower the construction process. However the case is not similar in India. There are

software being used like Estimator, Staad Pro or AutoCAD but to a very limited segment

of the works.

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Availability of labor resources is a very big difference between the ways things

are done in the two countries. India has a total population of 1.22 billion as compared to

a population of 317 million in the USA. Thus, India has an ample amount of labor

available for construction work at cheap cost. However the scenario is completely

different in the USA with low population and good wages.

Despite abundance of financial resources, construction of residential housing has

become difficult in India and other developing regions due to lack of space. Due to

dense population, random urbanization has taken place leading to reduction in

agricultural land. Land speculation is quite high in some areas of India.

The labor rates for a mason in USA is about $25 to $30 per hour as compared to

merely of a maximum of $7 to $10 a day. This results in increased construction cost in

the USA but also in turn the difference in the construction methods. Thus, a lot of work

is done using machinery like equipment to carry materials on site which on the other

hand in India it is done by the labor due to easy availability and low cost. Thus,

technology occupies a bigger part in the construction industry in the USA while this is

not the same in India.

Project Delivery Method

The major Project Delivery methods used in USA are either Design-Bid-Build or

Design-Build.

The Design-Bid-Build method includes different entities that are responsible for

doing the Designing and the construction part of the project (Desai et al. 2016). This

means the owner needs to hire a consultancy firm or an architectural firm for the design

part of the project and bids are solicited from Contractors for doing the construction

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project. This method is used most prominently in both countries. This method is good as

experts do their job and the owner’s responsibility is reduced to a bare minimum.

The Design Build method of project delivery is a method where both the design

and the construction part falls in the domain of the contractor (Construction industry

institute 2012). This means the contractor is given the task to both design the project

and then commence with the construction part of the same. This method of project

delivery is usually seen in case where the Owner has some previous good experiences

with the General contractor and is sure about the efficiency of the contractor (Desai et

al. 2016). This case is more efficient less people are involved in the decision making so

the decisions and amendments are made easily and quickly. The method is being

practiced more in India.

Population Difference (Koehn et al. 2001)

The Indian government stated that 21.9% of the total population in India is below

its official poverty limit. In addition, the available land area is one third the land of the

United States of America. Thus, 267.18 million people below the poverty line are almost

equivalent to the total population of the USA. With such a large human resource

available, India has a large number of workforce available at cheap rates for any type of

industry. The construction industry in India provides jobs for a lot of this skilled and

unskilled manpower. Due to its economical and abundant labor force, most of the work

on a construction site is done by hand by the labors which should otherwise be done

using machines such as forklifts or cranes as done in the USA. This is also the main

reason for the huge difference in the labor rates in the two countries. This scenario does

not even seem to be changing in the near future as the population growth of India still

remains a big issue for the government to deal with. Though, the laws have been made

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by the Government of India but are less followed by the people of India (Koehn et al.

2001).

India is a more labor intensive country. It involves 2.5 to 10 times as many

workers per activity compared to other developed countries (Koehn et al. 1995).

Workers are almost unskilled, illiterate, and migrate in a group, with or without families,

across the country in search of employment (Koehn et al. 1995).

Research has been done in educating the large population and Toole et al.

(2002) made the conclusion that the proper training in fields of safety would decrease

the number of fatalities that occur on the construction site. By education and training,

attitude and behavior may be improved to some extent in safety management in the

work place. Periodic educational and training programs upgrade the necessary

knowledge and skills of employees at work. This may make a successful safety program

(Toole 2002; Tam et al. 2004; and Fang et al. 2004). Many researchers emphasize

education as the most powerful strategy to improve construction safety (Laukkanen et.

al. 1999; Jaselskis et al. 1996; Wilson 1989).

With only 3% of total teaching in the country addressing the direct needs of the

construction engineering and management aspects required in the construction

industry, the14th Engineering Congress on Human Capital Development (Seminar on

Human Capital Development in Engineering for Global Competitiveness in January

2002) observed that “in time to come, India will not have sufficient quality civil engineers

even to undertake basic infrastructure work.” Urgent steps are to be initiated to reverse

this trend of severe shortage of technical manpower.

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Bidding scenario (Nihas et al. 2013)

The bidding scenario is pretty much the same in the two countries. There is a

proper set of documentation required before and during the bid process. The

requirements include:

Bonds

Bonds are written documents that describe the conditions and obligations relating

to the agreement. Under the terms of the bond, the owner is compensated for actual

damages sustained from any default of the contractor.

Types of bonds –

Bid Bond: ensures that if a contractor is awarded the bid within the time specified, the contractor will enter the contract and provide all other specified bonds.

Performance Bond: Guarantees the owner that, within limits, the contractor will perform all work in accordance with the contract documents. This is about 100% of the total amount of the project.

Labor and Material Bond: Guarantees the payment of the contractor’s bill for labor and materials used or supplied on the project.

Subcontractor Bond: Subcontractors may be required to provide the GC payment and performance bond to save the GC from any losses due to the subcontractor’s faults in turn reducing the GC’s risk.

These bonds are also a major requirement in India for the bid package and they go by

the name of guarantee. The most common guarantees are the bank guarantee and

performance guarantee.

Insurance

The General contractor is required to provide a certificate of insurance which

generally include Labor insurance, Material and Equipment Insurances. The only type of

insurance that is unique to the USA Construction industry is Worker’s Compensation

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insurance. It is a type of premium paid to the government by the GC for the worker

which will compensate the worker in the case injury. Another good thing about the

Worker’s Compensation is that the United States Department of Labor also provides a

lot of benefits to federal workers (or dependents) like wage replacement benefits,

medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation etc. There are also a lot of other benefits for

laborers in the USA. One of those is Unemployment Compensation, which is given to

the workers in case of unemployment by the government. Such schemes though also

exist in India but the benefits most often end up not going into the hands of the workers

and the amount is also very insignificant as the number of workers is very huge. “A

good contract document should have fairness of equity to either parties to the contract,

clarity or un-ambiguity of all items of work, avoidance of redundancy due to lack of

knowledge or in-attention to details and general and detailed specification (Saha,

2003)”.

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is another major difference in the construction culture of the

two countries. However the myth that Green construction increases the cost of the

project prevails in both the countries, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental

Development) has been used to continuously improve this construction scenario in the

USA. It provides certification to buildings with efficient design structure as in case of

Rinker Hall building at the University of Florida. These efforts have helped to change the

viewpoint of people about the cost effectiveness of green buildings. However in India

people still consider making a green building a waste of time but the LEED inspired

IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) is also making some significant efforts in

changing the mindset of the Indian society (USGBC Press Release, 2014). As a result

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there are some Green and energy efficient buildings coming up in the country for good.

Some examples being – ITC Green Center, Gurgaon and Olympia Technology Park,

Chennai which is LEED certified (Verma and Tiwari 2015).

Dilipkumar (2012) conducted a comparative study between the Occupational

Safety and Health Act (OSHA), (1970) of the United States and the Building and Other

Construction Workers Act (BOCW), (1996) of India. The study concluded that unlike

OSHA, the BOCW act is not properly propagated. The reason stated by the author was

the lack of availability of the documents in the public domain in the form of a separate,

independent, and well organized website.

Construction safety

Construction is, by its very nature, a hazardous undertaking, especially in

developing countries. There are a lot of labor and site safety laws in both the countries

but the presence of a body like OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

creates a need for construction safety in the minds of the General contractors. The

possibility of regular site visits and citations for any violations pushes the contractors to

ensure a safety culture on the job site. The frequency of visits and citations is very low,

thus implying a very careful attitude when it comes to site safety.

The number of citations stated below for the year 2014 have been retrieved from

the Occupational Safety and Health Administration website.

Table 2-3. OSHA Inspections in 2014 (Source. www.osha.gov.in)

FY 2014 Total Federal Inspections 36,163

FY 2014 Total Federal Inspections 47,217

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However, safety is not at all a big concern in the minds of the Indian contractors.

Thought the safety laws prevails in the India Construction Industry but very often

charged with a citation in India. The labor laws in India are rather primitive were

established in 1949 under the Factory Act. No clear data is available about the total

number of deaths as only few percentage of accidents on construction sites are

reported over the years but the number is probably in high thousands per year. In the

USA, PFAS ( Personal Fall Arrest system) and hard hats are mandatory for every body

and this can be seen easily seen when one walks by any construction site in USA but

this is not the case in India unfortunately. Some high end government projects though

have started establishing a safety culture in India as well. This has been seen on DMRC

sites for Delhi METRO projects, which is of course a late but good start to the idea of

construction safety.

Labor Wages

The labor wages in most developing countries is much lower than the wages

being paid to labor in developed countries. India being on the high population side has a

large income group falling below the poverty line. The income of the laborer in India is

approximately 8000 Rupees per month ($133 per month) which is a weekly wage of $33

(Koehn et al. 1995). Although, the cost of living standards is minimal in India the salary

paid to laborers is much less than the salary paid to laborers in developed nations. This

is also an important factor for low productivity rates in developing regions. Because of

the lower wages, contractors in India, if possible tend to use labor rather than

purchasing expensive equipment. Even if the equipment is available, workers on site

tend to use standard tools for work because of the lack of training.

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Table 2-4 compares the wage rates of various activities performed by workers in

India with those in United States of America, a developed nation (Koehn and Reddy,

1999). In Table 2-4, it is also noted that the average salary in India is $0.84 per hour.

This implies that construction workers fall below the poverty line and thus do not have

enough funds to purchase proper food. Improper sustenance cause lethargy among

workers. Thus leading to low productivity and high accident rates on construction site.

Table 2-4. Comparison of Labor Rates in India and USA (Koehn and Reddy, 1999)

Building Construction Trades US Wage

Rate/ Hour ($) India Wage

Rate/Hour ($)

Asbestos Workers / Boiler Makers 25.75 / 26.28 1.24 / 1.24

Brick Layer / Brick Layer Helpers 23.57 / 18.58 0.83 / 0.62

Carpenters / Stone Masons 22.91 / 23.79 1.04 / 0.83

Cement Finishers / Roof men 22.76 / 25.31 0.83 / 0.83

Electricians / Elevator Contractors 26.26 / 27.14 1.04 / 1.04

Equipment Operators - heavy / Pile Drivers 24.43 / 23.02 1.04 / 1.25

Equipment Operators - medium / Equipment’s Operators - light

23.47 / 22.47 0.93 / 0.83

Marble Setters / Mosaic and Terrazzo Workers 23.62 / 23.10 0.73 / 0.73

Painters (Ordinary) / Painters (Structural Steel) 21.47 / 22.26 0.62 / 0.73

Plasterers / Plasterer Helpers 22.28 / 18.75 0.83 / 0.62

Plumbers / Plumber Helpers 26.79 / 18.89 1.04 / 0.83

Roofers / Roofer Helpers 20.90 / 15.13 0.83 / 0.73

Sheet Metal Workers / Pipe Filters 25.93 / 26.91 0.83 / 1.04

Structural Steel Workers / Structural Steel Welders

25.55 / 25.55 0.83 / 0.83

Tile Layers / Tile Layer Helpers 22.94 / 18.31 0.73 / 0.62

Trade Average 22.39 0.84

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Construction Industry Development

Nowadays, the Indian economy is currently facing difficulties because of the

lower commodity prices, increasing energy cost, fluctuation in exchange rates and

increasing inflation. Ofori (1993) suggested that the construction industry of developing

regions should do well irrespective of the critical constraints in its work environment.

Since the construction industry is the second largest economic activity in India, it should

also help the national economy to recover and contribute in easing the social problems.

Ofori (1993) also suggested some ways that the construction industry can

contribute to expand the country’s economy. Firstly, the construction industry of

developing nations should act as a supportive hand in the country’s economy by

creating job opportunities in all parts of the country and encourage business relations

with other sectors of the economy. This can only be done by developing and

implementing new strategies which are satisfactory for the developing nation. Secondly,

the construction activities should place the foundation of the infrastructure of the

developing nation. With extreme shortage of public funding, different possibilities should

be realized to structure the funding strategies and strengthen the economy (Ofori 1993).

Foreign investment should be encouraged that strengthens the immediate investment

for the formulation of the major projects in the country.

Ofori (1991) suggested that the corporate culture should also be introduced in

the construction industry of the developing nations. The construction industry of the

developing regions should include companies that are set for the investment in the

human resource, heavy equipment and also intensive research and development that

would increase construction productivity. Nevertheless, the construction firms in the

developing regions are famous for its lack of knowledge i.e. unskilled labor on site, short

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term goals and inefficient construction. They are unable to employ qualified workers or

unable to afford qualified personnel. Thus, an effective management plays a key role in

construction firms in the developing regions.

India’s National Economy

Currently, the annual expenditure budget of India is Rs 438,795 Crores

compared to the total Gross National Product (GNP) of the country of about Rs

2200,000 Crores or more (retrieved from www.indiabudget.nic.in, 2004). It has been

determined that more than half of the budget is being spent on construction in India

(retrieved from www.indiabudget.nic.in, 2004). Table 1 shows the investment being

done in the construction industry over the years. Continuous efforts over the years by

the Indian construction industry and the Planning Commission has led to assigning

industry status to construction in India today (Das 2003). Table 2-5 shows the

increment in the annual expenditure in Civil Engineering construction. This indicates the

emphasis being made for the improvement in the infrastructure of the country.

Table 2-5. Investment in the Construction Industry (Swarup and Mahajan, 2001)

Amount (in multiples of Rs. 100 Crores)

Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Residential Construction

Public 43 46 65 75 77

Private 47 49 85 100 103

Total 90 95 150 175 180

Non-residential Construction

Public 56 58 55 60 65

Private 104 107 95 110 120

Total 160 165 150 170 185

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Table 2-5. Continued

Amount (in multiples of Rs. 100 Crores)

Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Civil Engineering Construction

Public 1350 1480 1690 1900 2155

Private 500 530 640 755 880

Total 1850 2010 2330 2655 3035

30

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLGY

The objective of the study is to improve the level of the construction standards of

developing countries which would help the economy of developing nations to expand by

increasing the country’s GDP and creating a positive effect on employment growth in

other sectors. In the initial phase of the study, the existing literature was reviewed to find

the basis of comparison between techniques used in the construction industry of the

United States of America and India. Challenges faced by the developing nation were

reviewed and included in the literature review conducted for the research paper. This

helped in providing solutions for the betterment of the construction industry in future.

To evaluate the opinion of the industry experts, statistical analysis was applied to

the data retrieved from the online survey platform of Qualtrics software. The survey

included 27 questions that took less than 10 minutes to complete. The online survey

collaboration features makes it easy to build and share a survey with the target

population. The survey would be conducted in multi-stages. The data collected from the

survey were analyzed using various statistical techniques and conclusions were

derived.

Survey Questionnaire Design

The survey questionnaire has been included in Appendix C at the end of the

research paper. The survey questionnaire starts with the location of the respondent

followed by two sections. The first section solicits information on the construction

practices in India. The second section solicits information on the construction practices

in the United State of America. Both sections start with demographic information. The

very first question uses the ‘skip logic’ feature available in Qualtrics (2016). Based on

31

the response to the first question, the skip logic directs the respondent to the desired

section of the survey. The survey questionnaire was administered anonymously, in

accordance with the policy of the University of Florida Institutional Review Board

(UFIRB-02). A detailed description of the questionnaire and its correlation with objective

of the study is provided in the following section.

Question 1: What part of the world does your company operate in? The

purpose of the question was to categorize the respondent’s location as a developing

region or developed region. The question was most important during the analysis of the

data and provided relevance to Sections 1 and 2.

Construction Practices in India

The section defines the construction practices used in the Indian construction

industry.

Question 1: What region do you primarily operate in? The purpose of the

question was to identify the demographic location of the respondent in India

participating in the study. The question was helpful for the analysis of the data and

provided relevance to the questions further in the section.

Question 2: What is your primary role within the company? The question

identified the respondent’s occupational role. This would help in categorizing the

respondent within the construction industry. The options were also designed keeping in

mind the hierarchy of corporate culture in India.

Question 3: What is the number of years you have been working in the

construction industry? The purpose of this question was to determine the relevance

between the numbers of years the respondent has worked in the construction industry

of India compared to their opinions in response to the previous questions.

32

Question 4: What type of work does your company typically perform? The

question was posted in order to identify the sector of the construction industry of India,

the respondent worked in. The question assisted in better understanding of the

construction practices used in different sectors of the country.

Question 5: What is the average cost of the projects that your company

completes? The question was posted to analyze the average cost of the projects that

the respondent’s company completes annually in India. The responses to this question

was helpful in analysing the data from other questions in the section. This would also

help in comparing the construction industry size of a developing nation to that of a

developed nation.

Question 6: What is major delivery method used by the company? The

purpose of this question was to analyze the respondent’s company involvement in the

delivery methods used for construction in India. The data from Question 4 helped in

establishing a relation between the types of work a company performs to the delivery

method used by it and comparing that to the delivery methods used in the USA.

Question 7: On a scale of 1-5 (1 being least important and 5 being the most

important), how would you rate the importance using “Information Technology”

in your company? This is a Likert scale (Likert1932) question addressing the use of

information technology in construction by the respondent’s company in India. The

response is on scale of 1-5 (1 being least important and 5 being the most important).

The question is also important in determining the construction industry of India’s

acceptance and adaptability to new available software.

33

Question 8: What types of software does a company include in its planning

phase? The intent of this question was to determine whether the companies considers

planning as important part of the construction in India. The percentage of companies in

India using effective software’s for planning on their project is critical in understanding

the current status of the technology. This question also has relevance with Question 5

as it helps to know the importance of planning phase inclusion to the respondent’s

company size.

Question 9: Does the company include “Worker’s Compensation” as a part

of insurance during the bidding process? The intent of this question is to identify the

importance of the employees at the lower level in respondent’s company operation in

India. This would also define the safety of the workers working in the company by

assuring them with such bonds.

Question 10: Does your company use sustainable practices in its projects?

This question will help in determining the respondent’s company adaptability towards

sustainable practices in their projects operating in India as it would help in making the

environment more eco-friendly. The question would also help in understanding the

company acceptance in adopting effective techniques in the construction of their

projects.

Question 11: What percentage of the project cost, does the company spend

on the safety equipment? The purpose of this question was to analyze the extent to

which the respondent’s company operating in India is willing to spend on safety

equipment. Using the data from Question 5 of the Section, helps in comparing the size

of the projects with the amount the company spends on safety equipment.

34

Question 12: What is hourly rate of unskilled labor in your company? The

question would help us in better understanding the wages earned by laborers to the

basic earnings required by a person living in India. This would help in comparing the

work ethics to the respondent’s company size operating in India willing to incorporate

“equal pay” culture in its company to the companies of developed regions.

Question 13: According to you, what should be considered for inclusion in

future construction management curricula for betterment of the industry? The

intent of this question was to determine any additional information that the respondent

working in India construction industry would like to share for the betterment of future

construction management curricula. This question was key in understanding the

effective techniques that could be incorporated for the betterment of the Indian

construction industry.

Construction Practices in United States of America

The section defines the construction practices used in United States of America’s


Question 1: What region do you primarily operate in? The purpose of stating

the question was to differentiate the respondents working in the construction industry of

United States of America to the respondents operating in the construction industry of

India. The question was further helpful in the analysis of the other questions in the

respected section.

Question 2: What is your primary role within the company? The aim of this

question was to identify the primary role of the respondents operating in the United

States of America. The hierarchy of the options were designed according to the

35

corporate culture of the construction companies operating in the United States of

America.

Question 3: Number of years you have been working in the construction

industry? The question was relevant in stating the relationship between the numbers of

years the respondent has worked in the construction industry of United States of

America compared to the primary role in their respected companies.

Question 4: What type of work does your company typically perform? The

importance of this question was to understand the majority of work been done in the

United States of America. It also helped to identify the sector of the construction

industry of United States of America, the respondent belongs to. The question assisted

in better understanding of the construction practices used in different sections of the

country.


completes? The question aimed at the better understanding of the size of the

construction firms operating in the United States of America. The question also had the

relevance with the type of work performed by the respondent’s company.

Question 6: What is major delivery method used by your company? The raw

data obtained from this question helped in comparing the results obtained from the

construction companies in India. Thus analysing the different techniques used in the

United States of America and need for changes in construction sector of India.


important), how would you rate the importance using “Information Technology”

in your company? The data obtained from this question helped in analysing the results

36

obtained in Question 7 from Section 1 of the survey. This question was the basis to

compare the importance of Information Technology in the construction industry of India.

Question 8: What types of software does the company include for its

planning phase? The intent of this question was to identify the need to shift to new

software used in planning phase by the construction industry of India. The percentage

of companies in USA using effective software for planning on their project is critical in

understanding the current status of the technology. This question also has the

relevance with Question 5 as it helps to know the importance of planning phase

inclusion based on the respondent’s company size.

Question 9: Does the company include “Worker’s Compensation” as a part

of insurance during bidding process? The raw data from this question was

compared to the data obtained from the construction companies operating in India.

Thus, analysing the importance of workers in companies of developed regions.


This question will help us to know the respondent company adaptability towards

sustainable practices in their projects operating in USA as it would help in making the

environment more eco-friendly. This question would also help us to understand the

company acceptance in adopting effective techniques in the construction of their

projects.


on the safety equipment? The purpose of this question was to analyze the extent to

which the respondent’s company operating in USA is willing to spend on safety

37

equipment. Using the data from Question 5 of the Section, helps in comparing the size

of the projects with the amount spent on safety equipment.

Question 12: What is hourly rate for unskilled labor in your company? The

question would help us in better understanding the wages earned by laborers to the

basic earnings required by a person living in the USA in monetary terms. This would

help us in comparing the work ethics to the respondent’s company size operating in

USA willing to incorporate “equal pay” culture in the company.


future construction management curricula for betterment of the industry? The

intent of this question was to determine any additional information that the respondents

working in USA’s construction industry would like to share for the betterment of future

construction management curricula. This question was key in understanding the

effective techniques that could be incorporated for the betterment of the USA’s


38

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

A significant amount of research has been done in the field of new technologies

associated with construction but there is no clear implementation of these new

technologies in the developing regions. The Government of India (GOI) has reformed its

policies but the lack of proper awareness makes them difficult to implement during

construction. Big companies like Delhi Land $ Finance Limited (DLF), Larsen and turbo

(LnT) has reformed their construction policies but small companies are still struggling

with construction methods improvement. Thus, most of the work on-site is being

handled by the workers instead of using new equipment available in the construction

industry of the developed regions which increases the number of fatalities to a large

extent.

Industry Survey Analysis

The survey was kept open for a period of 30 days. The survey questionnaire

design was explained in Chapter 3 and the survey consent form has been attached in

Appendix A. There were a total of 50 respondents to the survey, of which only 45

completed the whole survey. Out of the 45 respondents who managed to complete the

whole survey, 25 respondents belonged to the construction industry of United States of

America and 20 respondents belonged to the construction industry of India. The five

incomplete responses out of a total of 50 responses were excluded. As explained earlier

in Chapter 3, the very first question of the survey has skip logic (defines the section

according to the response to the previous question) followed up by the section

according to that response. of the very first question. The following section contains the

analysis of the survey described in Chapter 3. Statistical analysis was used for each of

39

the survey questions. In addition to the statistical analysis, responses to some the

questions of the survey were cross tabulated and interpreted with the responses of the

other questions of the survey so to define the relevance between the respective

responses. The raw data obtained from the survey using Qualtrics software were

exported to an MS Excel file for statistical analysis. The results obtained are described

in the next section.

The very first question of the survey was used to analyze the part of the world,

the respondent belongs to. Both the sections starts with the demographic survey to

analyze the respondents and their responses on the basis of the professionalism in the

construction industry and the company size the respondent is working for. The

demographic questions were included in the survey for the effective analysis of the

remaining question in the two sections.

Question 1: What part of the world does your company operate in? This was

the first question of the survey and all the 48 complete responses include responses to

this question. As shown in Figure 4-1, a large majority of respondents, and 26 (57%)

operated in the construction industry of United States of America.

Figure 4-1. Part of the world the company operates in (n=48)

22

26

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

India

United States of America

Number of Respondents

Par

t o

f w

orl

d c

om

pan

y o

per

ates

40

Construction Practices in India

The questions in this section focuses on demo*graphic information of the

respondent working in the construction industry of India. In addition to the demographic

information, the question also focuses on the construction practices used in India

Question 1: What region do you primarily operate in? The question was

followed up by the ‘Skip Logic’ that defined the subsequent section and the respondents

working in India had an access to this section. For this question, 22 complete responses

by the respondents working in the construction industry of India were recorded as

shown in Figure 4-2. A large majority of the respondents, 10 (45%) operated in Northern

India.

Figure 4-2. Primary region of operation (n=22)

Question 2: What is your primary role within the company? Twenty Two

complete responses were recorded, as shown in the Figure 4-3. The options for this

question were decided keeping in mind the hierarchy of corporate culture of the

10

4

6

2

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Northern India

Southern India

Western India

Eastern India

Number of respondents

Pri

mar

y R

egio

n o

f o

per

atio

n

41

construction industry of India. Project Engineer was highest recorded response at 32%

(7), followed by Project Manager at 18% (4). The number of respondents that worked as

General Manager was three and Estimator was two each. The data also include one

student and one Planning Engineer assuming that they were associated with


Figure 4-3. Primary Role within the company (n=22)


industry? As shown in the Figure 4-4, there were 20 responses recorded for this

question. There were 4 (20%) respondents that had an experience of four years. A

majority of the respondents 13 (65%) had an experience of less than five years which

can also be related to responses to Question 2 in this Section as the majority of the

respondents worked as a Project Engineer. Thus, the data correlates to responses for

the role of the respondent in his/her organization.

3

1

4

3

7

2

1 1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

GeneralManager

DeputyGeneralManager

ProjectManager

ChiefEngineer

ProjectEngineer

Estimator Other,(PlanningEngineer)

Other,(Intern)

Nu

mb

er o

f R

esp

on

den

ts

Primary Role

42

Figure 4-4. Years of experience in the construction industry (n=22)

Question 4: What type of work does your company typically perform? There

were 22 responses recorded for this question as shown in the Table 4-1. Forty five

percent (10) of the respondents replied that there company performed residential

construction. Of the remaining 12 responses, five respondents’ companies performed

Commercial construction, two respondents’ companies performed industrial

construction and four respondents’ company performed Heavy Civil construction. Only

4.5% (1) of the respondents indicated that their company performed work in two sectors

i.e. residential and commercial construction as shown in Figure 4-5.

Table 4-1. Type of work performed by the respondent’s company

Type of work performed Number of responses Percentage of total

Residential 10 45.5

Commercial 5 22.7

Industrial 2 9.1

Heavy Civil 4 18.2

Residential and Commercial 1 4.5

Total 22 100

1

2

1 1

2

6

2 2 2

3

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

16 15 17 6 7 4 3 2 2 Upto 1

Num

ber

of

respondents

Number of years of experience

43

Figure 4-5. Type of work performed by the respondents’ company


completes? The response to this question was analyzed using the MS Excel’s Analysis

Tool Pak as shown in the Table 4-2. Total of 22 responses were recorded for this

question. The information generated from this question was key in relating the type of

work being performed by the respondent’s construction company.

Table 4-2. Analysis of Company Size.

Question 6: What is major delivery method used by the company? Twenty-

two responses were recorded for this question as shown in Figure 4-6. Nine out of a

45%

23%

9%

18%

5%

Residential

Commercial

Industrial

Heavy Civil

Residential and Commercial

Parameter Value (Rs.)

Number of response (n) 22

Average 91,26,75,315.38

Standard deviation 125,34,67,756.07

Median 30,00,00,000

Minimum 2,00,000

Maximum 600,00,00,000

44

total of twenty-two responses indicated that their company used Design-Build as a

delivery method for the projects. Six respondents replied that their company used

Design-Bid-Build and four responded Construction Manager as a delivery method. The

respondents who indicated that their company used design-build as a delivery method

performed residential and industrial construction.

Figure 4-6. Type of Delivery Method (n=22)


important), how would you rate the importance of using “Information

Technology” in your company? This is a Likert scale question and the respondents

had to rate the use of Information Technology in their company. This helped to analyze

the extent to which information technology was being used in developing nations. A total

of 22 responses were recorded as shown in Table 4-3. The mean of the total twenty

responses were 1.71 which indicated the need to spread the awareness of information

technology in the construction industry of India.

9

6

4

3

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Design Build

Design Bid Build

Construction Manager

Other, (bid build)


Del

iver

y M

eth

od

45

Table 4-3. Analysis of Importance of usage of Information Technology

Variable Value

Count (n) 22

Minimum 0

Maximum 3

Mean 1.71

Standard Deviation 0.79

Variance 0.81

Question 8: What types of software does the company use for its planning

phase? A total 22 responses were recorded for this question as shown in Figure 4-7.

Out of twenty two responses, 12 (54%) responses indicated the use of MS Planner as a

Planning software by their company. Six indicated the use of MS Excel and four

indicated the use Primavera-P6 software for Planning in their company. This indicates

that there is a need to spread awareness of the latest software in the Indian


Figure 4-7. Type of Software for Planning Phase (n=22)

4

12

6

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Primavera-P6 MS Project Planner Other, (MS Excel)

Nu

mb

er o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Software used for Planning

46

Question 9: Does the company includes “Worker’s Compensation” as a

part of insurance during bidding process? This question was framed to determine

the importance of worker’s employed by the construction industry in India. A total of 22

responses were recorded for this question as shown in Figure 4-8.The majority of the

responses 73% (16) indicated the non-inclusion of Worker’s Compensation in their

Company. Only 27% (6) of the respondents indicated the inclusion of Worker’s

Compensation by their company. This could be related to the company size such that

only large companies included Worker’s Compensation. Thus, there was very low

security to the workers working in the developing regions.

Figure 4-8. Inclusion of Worker’s Compensation (n=22)


Seventeen respondents indicated that their company does not use sustainable practices

during construction as shown in Figure 4-9. The reason behind the majority saying ‘No’

is the lack of awareness of benefits in the Indian construction industry of using

sustainable practices. This indicates the scope of improvement needed in construction

practices in India.

6

16

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Yes No

Nu

mb

er o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Inclusion of worker's compensation

47

Figure 4-9. Use of Sustainable practices (n=22)


on the safety equipment? As shown in the Table 4-4, the statistical analysis of the

response to this question yielded the mean value of the 22 responses as 2.85% of the

project cost used for safety equipment. Thus, indicating a very low dependence on

highly equipped equipment in the construction industry of India.

Table 4-4. Percentage of project cost spent for Safety Equipment

Percentage of project cost for safety Equipment Value

Count (n) 22

Minimum 0

Maximum 30

Mean 2.85


Variance 56.24

Question 12: What is hourly rate of unskilled labor in your company? This

question was analyzed using the MS Excel Analysis Tool Pack. The total of twenty-two

responses recorded for this question gave a mean value of Rs285.26 (Table 4-5) i.e. $4

5

17

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Yes

No


Use

of

Sust

ain

able

pra

ctic

e

48

per hour which is very less than the minimum earnings required for a person in India for

survival. Thus, the results indicated the quality of life of construction workers working in

India. This question also has a relevance to the Question 9 of the Section i.e. the

majority of the companies not including the Worker’s Compensation in their bids had

earnings below poverty level.

Table 4-5. Hourly Rate of Unskilled Labour

Parameter Value

Count 22

Minimum 250

Maximum 360

Mean 285.26


Variance 1256.35


future construction management curricula for betterment of the industry?

This question was an open response question and the respondents were

required to type in what should be included in future construction management curricula

for the betterment of the Indian industry. A total of 20 responses were recorded as

shown in the Table 4-6. The majority of the respondents (45%) wanted site visits and

equipment operation to be included in the construction management curricula. Further

analysis stated that 10% (2) of the respondents wanted to focus more on bidding

scenarios and 15% (3) wanted emphasis on sustainable practices for the improvement

of the Indian construction industry.

49

Table 4-6. Factors for the betterment of the industry

Addition Information Number of Responses Percentage of Total

Focus on bidding scenario 2 10

BIM 6 30

Emphasis on sustainable practices 3 15

Site visits and equipment operation 9 45

Total 20 100

Construction Practices in the United States of America

The questions in this section relate to construction practices used in the United

States of America. The section starts with the demographic information of the

respondents working in the United States of America.

Question 1: What region do you primarily operate in? The question was

followed up by the ‘Skip Logic’ and the respondents working in the United States of

America was followed up by this question. A Total of 26 responses were recorded for

this question as shown in Figure 4-10. The majority of the 18 (69%) respondents

worked in Southern part of the United States of America. Five (19%) responses were

recorded by the respondents working in Northeast (Mid Atlantic) region of the United

States of America.

Figure 4-10. Primary Region of operation (n=26)

1

5

1

18

0

1

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Northeast (New England)

Northeast (Mid Atlantic)

Midwest

South

West (Mountain)

West (Pacific)


Pri

mar

y re

gio

n o

f o

per

atio

n

50

Question 2: What is your primary role within the company? The question

was only allowed to be responded to by the respondents working in the United States of

America. A total of 26 responses were recorded for this question as shown in Figure 4-

11. The majority of the respondents for this question worked as an Assistant Project

Manager in their company i.e. 23% (6). The options were decided keeping in mind the

hierarchical structure of the construction industry of the United States of America. The

question was also responded to by the Energy Modeler a shown in the Figure 4-11. The

data recorded for this question also included BIM/VDC Specialist in his/her respected

company. The question differentiates the Indian Construction Industry with inclusion of

specialists in their firms.

Figure 4-11. Primary Role within their Company (n=26)


industry? This question was mandatory for the respondents working in the construction

industry of United States of America. A total of 25 responses were recorded as shown in

the Figure 4-12. There were 7 (27%) respondents who had an experience of three years

in the construction industry. This could also be analyzed from the previous question as

3

6

2

3

2

1

2

5

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Nu

mb

er o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Primary Role

51

the majority of the respondents worked as an Assistant Project Manager in their

respective firms. A majority of the respondents 19 (73%) had an experience of less than

five years as shown in the Figure 4-12.

Figure 4-12. Number of years working in the construction industry (n=26)

Question 4: What type of work does your company typically perform? A

total of 26 responses were recorded for this question as shown in the Table 4-7. Thirty

eight percent (10) of the respondents replied that their company performed commercial

construction. Of the remaining 16 responses, six respondents’ company performed

residential construction, two respondents’ company performed industrial construction

and four respondents’ company performed Heavy Civil construction. Only 12% (3) of the

respondents indicated the company performed work in two sectors i.e. residential and

commercial construction as shown in Figure 4-5.

21

4 4

7

4 4

0123456789

101112

10 8 6 4 3 2 Upto 1Num

ber

of

respondents

Number of years of experience

52

Table 4-7. Type of work performed by the company

Type of work performed Number of responses

Percentage of total

Residential 6 23

Commercial 10 38

Industrial 2 8

Heavy Civil 5 19

Residential and Commercial 3 12

Total 26 100

Figure 4-13. Type of work performed by the company (n=26)


completes? The analysis of the responses recorded was done by the MS Excel

Analysis Tool Pack. Twenty six respondents answered this question as shown in Table

4-8. The response to this question was relevant for the Question 4 of this Section. From

the responses to this question indicated that the companies with big turnover performed

Heavy Civil construction. Thus, a lot is being spent on infrastructure construction in the

developed region but it is a completely different scenario in the India.

23%

38%

8%

19%

12%

Residential

Commercial

Industrial

Heavy Civil

Residential and Commercial

53

Table 4-8. Analysis of Company Size

Parameter Value

Number of response (n) 26

Average $154,321,845.85

Standard deviation $193,486,205.58

Median $120,000,000

Minimum $500,000

Maximum $800,000,000

Question 6: What is major delivery method used by the company? The total

number of responses recorded for this question were 26 as shown in the Figure 4-14.

The majority of the respondents i.e. 42% (11) stated that their company used the

Design-Bid-Build delivery method for its project which is a very high percentage as

compared to the responses received by the respondents of the construction industry of

India. This also indicated the competitive nature of the construction industry in United

States of America. Seven respondents stated the use of Design-Build delivery method

for their projects followed by five responses for the construction management delivery

method in their projects. This question could be related to the type of work performed by

their respected company as the majority of the respondents for this question performed

Heavy Civil and commercial construction.

54

Figure 4-14. Type of Delivery method used by the company (n=26)


important), how would you rate the importance of using “Information

Technology” in your company? The question required the respondents to rate the

importance of the use of Information Technology by their respective companies. The

total of 26 responses were recorded by the respondents operating in the United States

of America as shown in the Table 4-9. The mean value of the 26 responses by the

respondents of United States of America came out to be 4 as compared to the mean

value of 1.71 by the construction companies operating in India. This clearly states the

importance of using Information Technology in the construction industry of developed

nations.

Table 4-9. Importance of Information Technology in construction

Variable Value

Count (n) 26

Minimum 2

Maximum 5

Mean 4


Variance 0.6

7

11

5

3

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Design Build

Design Bid Build

Construction Manager

Other, (bid build)


Del

iver

y M

eth

od

55

Question 8: What types of software’s does the company includes for its

planning phase? In total, 26 responses were recorded for this question as shown in

Figure 4-7. Each respondent could select any number of options from the given list. Out

of twenty five responses, 17 (65%) responses indicated the use of Primaviera-P6 as a

Planning software by their company as compared to the 18% responses by the

respondents operating in the Indian Construction Industry. Eight indicated the use of MS

Project Planner and one indicated the use of MS Excel software for Planning in their

company. This indicates that there is a need to shift to latest software’s in the planning

phase by the Indian Construction Industry so as to assure quality.

Figure 4-15. Software used for Planning Phase (n=26)

Question 9: Does the company includes “Worker’s Compensation” as a

part of insurance during bidding process? The 25 respondents as shown below in

Figure 4-16 were those who had responded that their company included Worker’s

Compensation. This is evident from the fact that the governmental policies have made it

mandatory irrespective of the size of the company in United States of America.

Comparing it to the Indian Construction Industry, the percentage of respondents

17

8

1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Primavera-P6 MS Project Planner Other, (MS Excel)

Nu

mb

er o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Software used for planning

56

including Worker’s Compensation was only 27%. Only 4% of the respondents said that

they did not included the Worker’s Compensation in their company.

Figure 4-16. Inclusion of Worker’s Compensation (n=26)


There were 22 (85%) respondents who stated that they used sustainable practices in

their projects as shown in Figure 4-16. Comparing this to the respondents operating in

India, the percentage of respondents who stated the use of sustainable practices in their

projects was nearly 23%. Fifteen percent of the respondents indicated that their

company did not use the sustainable practices.

Figure 4-17. Use of sustainable practices in the company (n=26)

25

1

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Yes No

Nu

mb

er o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Inclusion of worker's compensation

22

4

0 5 10 15 20 25

Yes

No


Use

of

sust

ain

able

pra

ctic

es

57


on the safety equipment? As shown in the Table 4-10, the statistical analysis of the

response to this question indicated the mean value of the 26 responses as 6.7% of the

project cost used for safety equipment. This is very large percentage compared to the

mean value of 2.85% by the 22 respondents working in the construction industry of

India.

Table 4-10. Analysis of the Percentage of project cost spent for safety equipment.

Percentage of project cost for safety Equipment Value

Count (n) 26

Minimum 0

Maximum 20

Mean 6.7


Variance 76.95

Question 12: What is hourly rate of unskilled labor in your company? The

question was analyzed using the MS Excel Analysis Tool Pack. The total of twenty six

responses were recorded for this question gave a mean value of $15.4 as compared to

the twenty responses mean value of $4 per hour by the respondents working in India.

As noted by Koehn (1995), the minimum pay of the workers in the Indian construction

industry was not enough for even the necessities of life.

58

Table 4-11. Hourly rate of unskilled labor in their company.

Parameter Value

Count 26

Minimum 8

Maximum 20

Mean 15.4


Variance 1028.6


future construction management curricula for betterment of the industry? This

question was an open response question and the respondents working in construction

industry of United States of America were required to type in the solution that can be

included in future construction management curricula for the betterment of the industry.

A total of 26 responses were recorded as shown in the Table 4-12. The majority of the

respondents (35%) wanted the internship to be mandatory in the construction

management curricula. Further analysis stated that the respondents wanted to the

increase the use of Building Information Modelling in the construction management

curricula for the betterment of the industry of United States of America.

Table 4-12. Additional Factors included in Construction Management Curricula

Addition Information Number of Responses

Percentage of Total

Better documentation, online updation of drawings

2 8

Focus on practical training 5 19

Emphasis on sustainable practices 7 27

Mandatory Internship 9 35

More Building information modelling 3 12

Total 26 100

59

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

The use of latest technologies prevailing in the construction industry of

developed countries are still limited in the construction industry of developing countries.

Software’s like Building Information Modelling (BIM), Primavera - P6, Onscreen

Takeoffs have become prevalent in the construction industry of United States of

America. Regular research is being conducted for the effective application of the new

technologies in the construction industry of developed countries. In addition, some of

the researchers are concerned with new technologies in making it cost effective. There

is being large gap between the people working in the construction industry of India and

United States of America. Thus, awareness should be created among people working in

the construction industry of the developing countries about the benefits of the new

technologies. This research aimed at analyzing these challenges and clearing some of

these issues.

The majority of the respondents (56%) of the United States of America were

working in Heavy Civil and Commercial construction. The delivery method used by

these respondents were Design-Bid-Build for their projects. These indicated the

competitive nature of the construction industry in United States of America. The

competitive nature of the construction industry assures the quality of projects completed

in United States of America. Since the majority of the work done was Heavy Civil and

Commercial construction, thereby improving the infrastructure of the country. Unlike

India, the majority (40%) of work was related to Residential construction and the

60

delivery method used for the projects were Design Build. Thus, low grade materials

were used in the construction industry of India.

Very few respondents of construction industry of India indicated dependence on

Information Technology in the construction Industry and rated the importance as 1.67

out of 5. Unlike India, the respondents of construction Industry of United States of

America rated the importance of Information Technology as 4 out 5. Therefore

awareness needs to be raised among people of construction industry of India about the

benefits of Information Technology. Even the use of sustainable practices were limited

in the construction industry of India as compared to the construction industry of United

States of America.

Only 30% respondents of Indian Construction industry indicated the inclusion of

Worker’s Compensation as compared to 96% respondents of United States of America.

This could also be inferred from the low percentage (2.96%) of the project cost included

for safety equipment compared to the higher percentage (6.46%) of the construction

industry of United States of America. Hence, safety was considered less important to

the workers working in the construction industry of India. Several factors including BIM,

emphasis on sustainable practices, and improvement in bidding scenario were cited by

the respondents of India to improve the future construction management curricula.

Recommendations

Limited studies in regard with the application of new technologies have been

conducted. These studies include both the applicability and financial feasibility of using

the new technologies. Yet, a large number of the construction professional are doubtful

about the use of these new technologies in developing regions. Future study of the

challenges of using new technologies in construction needs to be conducted, that

61

includes one-to-one interviews with professional of the construction industry in

developing nations.

62

APPENDIX A INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL

63

APPENDIX B QUALTRICS SURVEY

64

65

66

67

68

69

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Bala, A., (2015). “India a Favourite Destination (A Survey on Infrastructure Sector).” Problems faced by the Infrastructure Sector. Journal of Maharaja Agrasen College of Higher Studies, 2394-4390.

Chandel, S.S., Sharma, A., and Bhanu, M., (2015). “Review of energy efficiency initiatives and regulations for residential buildings in India”. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2016, vol. 54, issue C, pages 1443-1458

Desai, A., Kashiyani, B., Sharma, N., (2016). “Functional Parameter Based Project Delivery Method Selection Decision Making Index”. International Journal of Science and Engineering Development Research, 2455-2631.

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Koehn, E., Kothari, R. K. and Pan, C. S. (1995) Safety in developing countries: professional and bureaucratic problems. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 121(3), 261-265.

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Mazumdar, D., (2014). “Country Report India 2007-12.” Meeting Construction Industry Resource Requirements. 20th Asia Construct Conference, Hong Kong November 2014.

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Rastogi, A., Kalra, P., Pandey, A., (2008). “India Infrastructure Report.” Business Models of the Future, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2008”.

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Swarup, P.R. and Mahajan, S., (2001), “Country Report on Indian Construction Industry,” Souvenir of The Seventh Asia Construct Conference & Exhibition, 3-6 October 2001, New Delhi.

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http://rec.hku.hk/steve/Msc/08-09/reco6005/RFF_challenges.pdf

71

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Akshay Goel received his undergraduate education from Jaypee University of

Information and Technology, earning a Bachelor in Civil Engineering. Upon completion

of the bachelor’s degree in 2015, Akshay started his graduate school at the M.E. Rinker,

Sr. School of Construction Management at the University of Florida. Akshay did his last

semester of undergraduate education at the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction

Management. After studying for the exchange semester at the University of Florida,

Akshay realized the difference in the construction technique’s being used in United

States of America and India. Thereafter, Akshay began his thesis work on the

challenges faced by the construction industry in India. Akshay graduated in fall 2016

with the degree of Master of Science in Construction Management (MSCM). He dreams

of improving the construction standards in the developing nations of the world.

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