Published Paper Details:

Due to COVID 19 pandemic, many projects in the construction sector around the globe were affected adversely in various aspects. Many were stopped and many were put on hold. This research was to understand the intensity of impact of the pandemic on construction cost and to seek out methods on how these profound challenges can be managed? The objectives of this research were (i) Studying the impact over construction sector and intensity of impact over cost and (ii) Identify ways to achieve cost control in the projects during such pandemic situation. The methodology applied for this research includes (i) Literature review to comprehend and assess historic data and to understand the ideas regarding optimization of workspace in built environment, better ways to communicate and resolve problems, etc. (ii) Data collection by questionnaire survey to understand the impact in India. The targeted participants were people connected to construction industry i.e., Clients, Contractor, Consultant, and other Professionals from Built Environment sector. (iii) Case Study - to validate the responses received from survey, comparison was done with actual data collected from the case study of an ongoing project. The data collected by questionnaire survey were critically analyzed, which revealed cost impact on the construction projects. And it also shows, the changes that are about to, or need to happen in construction sector which will develop/improve the usual practices, to achieve cost effective, cost efficient and optimized working conditions. The results received from survey responses were validated using actual data collected from a case study of an ongoing project. The outbreak did not affect the construction industry severely but it experienced delays and rising cost. Due to current pandemic situation, the areas in a construction industry which got impacted the more were cash flow, work force and project schedule. The level of impact on the Manpower was the strongest and by survey and case study it`s been found the cost-impact due to increase in cost of Labour was about 20-50% due to the social distancing and social panic, availability of labors was scarce. The results will assist us to be ready to face such situation or crisis in future.