Causes, Impacts and Preventive Measures of
Variation Order in Selected Building Projects of
Central Level Project Implementation Unit
(Building and Housing) in Kathmandu District.
Student: Gopal Bhattarai
Supervisor: Dr. Dinesh Sukamani
Submitted Date:
February, 2024
Abstract
Variation orders consist of the additions, omissions, alterations and substitution in terms of
quality, quantity and schedule of works. Central Level Project Implementation Unit
(Building and Housing) CLPIU(BH) is responsible to reconstruct public buildings, private
housing and heritage buildings is facing variation as one of the serious issues. Variation
orders impacted the project performance, procurement delay, quality degradation, disputes
among professionals, decline in firm reputations, increase in overhead expenses etc in
projects of CLPIU(BH). But there have been few researches carried out about cause and
impact of variation order in road, school building and hydropower projects of Nepal.
However, no research work has been carried out about variations orders in the building
projects under CLPIU(BH).
So, this research aims to highlight causes and impact of Variation Order in selected Building
Projects of CLPIU(BH) as well as to suggest preventive measures to reduce the variation
orders in similar building construction projects. For this purpose, 11 construction projects
of CLPIU(BH) were considered. Questionnaires for Causes, and Impacts of Variation Order
in Selected Building Projects of CLPIU(BH) in Kathmandu district were provided to
potential respondents 110 i.e., client, consultant and contractor through the goggle forms
and emails. Among 110 questionnaires, 81.81% i.e., 90 questionnaires respond were
received. Data were analyzed using MS Excel, RII and PCA by SPSS. KII conducted to
identify preventive measures to reduce variation order in building construction projects in
future.
For causes of variation order in Selected Building Projects of CLPIU(BH), RII was used.
The major client related causes are change in plan and scope, lack of proper review of design
and estimate provided by consultant, adaptation of new technologies, increase in client
requirements and insufficient coordination between various departments. The major
contractor related causes are poor project planning and management, inadequate study of
tender documents, intention of contractor to substitute new items to maximize profit,
inadequate proper communication with stakeholders and unfamiliarity with complex design
of retrofitting technology. Also, major consultant related causes are shortcoming in design
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with respect to site condition, flaws in BOQ and estimate prepared by consultant, inadequate
study of availability and requirements of materials and equipment, not providing required
documents and detailing to contractors and negligence in supervision
PCA approach was used to identify impacts of variation order in selected building projects
of CLPIU(BH). Result have shown that impacts of variation order were divided into 6
components i.e., cost fluctuation, difficulty in project management, complexity to
beneficiaries, delay in project progress, difficulty in fixation of new rate and erosion of
professional integrity.
Fixing needs before finalization of estimate, hiring expert to design and supervision,
forming coordination mechanism between government bodies, involving contractor in
design phase, ensuring proper study of site condition and maintaining proper
communication and coordination were identified preventive measures to reduce the
variation orders in similar building construction projects in future obtained from KII.
Thus, variation order is common in construction projects of CLPIU(BH). Variation order
caused project delay ranging from 3.5 months to 27.73 months and cost rise from 4.12% to
24.94% in studied selected building projects of CLPIU(BH) in Kathmandu district.
Keywords
Building Projects, Variation Order, Principal Component Analysis, Relative
Importance Index