THESIS ABSTRACT

Abstract

Electric power is the backbone of any developing country. The power sector has mainly three components: power generation, power transmission and power distribution. Power distribution plays a vital role in supply of electricity to consumers. Electricity is considered one of the basic utility and adequate and reliable power is necessary. Construction of underground electricity distribution reduces losses and increase reliability also. In this study, a total of four under-construction underground electrical cabling projects were selected for finding delay in the construction, its causes, effects and remedial measures. The questionnaire survey, Key Informant Interview (KII) and project documents were used to collect data for this study. The questionnaire were developed based on the literature review, discussion with the project team to investigate the content validity in line with the research objectives. Hard copy questionnaire were distributed to clients, consultants and contractors representatives and collected. The relative importance index (RII) method was used to calculate the rank of delay factors. According to the ranking of RII, the major factors of delay were delay in approval from other agencies, traffic interruption, covid pandemic, local people intervention, and delay in site handover. It was found that the major effects of delay of underground electrical cabling projects were time overrun, cost overrun, dispute, arbitration and litigation. In order to reduce the construction delay, the client has to obtain permissions and approval of concerned agencies/departments before award of the contract, have regulatory arrangements between interdepartmental bodies, coordination, carry out exiting utility survey mapping along with topographical survey, proper supervision, qualified contractor should be hired and proper planning with spoil management, traffic management, reconstruction of road should be carried out.

Keywords

Underground electric cabling, spoil management, traffic management, time overrun, cost overrun, Remedial measures