Construction Practice of Small Hydropower Projects in Nepal

Large number of hydropower projects is under construction and it is essential to document the construction practice of hydropower projects. Construction professional always focus on time, cost, safety and quality. The objective of the research is to assess construction management practice of small hydropower projects in Nepal. Out of thirty eight small hydropower projects twenty seven projects were considered for the study based on Cochran sample size for construction practice. Questionnaire survey, KII and case study of two projects was conducted for data collection. Critical path method was popular for planning the project. Weekly meetings were preferred by client, consultant and contractor for monitoring of the project progress. The overall findings of 62.86 percent of parties involved in the project used to coordinate their current schedule with master schedule. 80 percent of client, consultant and contractor had the association of cost schedule with estimated time schedule. More than 74 percent of client, consultant and contractor did not use any software for planning, monitoring and controlling of cost of project. Furthermore, the safety factors were moderately used in construction project. Also, 40 percent of meetings were conducted weekly for the safety issues and there were less number of trainings for the safety. Improvement in construction practice is required for ensuring the safety and timely completion of project within estimated budget. Keyword: Time, Cost and Safety Management Practice, Small Hydropower INTRODUCTION More than 90% budget of the HP projects is expensed in construction phase. It is the main part of the project life cycle. Most of the hydropower projects in Nepal have not been completed on time and within the estimated cost. Time and cost overrun in hydropower projects are very common problems. Among all these bad scenario of hydropower development of Nepal, few of the small hydropower projects developed by the private sectors are constructed within time frame as well as within the estimated cost. A good construction practice of any construction project refers that it is free from defects, right things at right time and the continuous improvement of the project. It is measured with the time, cost, quality and safety of the project. The productivity as well as the satisfaction yield in quality aspect project is also the major part of construction. The profitability of any organization depends with the performance of construction. The research to endorse the construction practice of the hydropower construction and its effect on the project to set the benchmark for the construction related issues. Due to availability of very little research in the area, the research is highly demanded. It is significant to provide information for local experts, decision makers and those foreign experts approaching in the region to work for Hydropower development. 1.1 Research Objectives The overall objective of the study is to assess the construction practice of the small hydropower runoff river (RoR) type projects in Nepal developed by Independent Power Producers (IPP’S) and the specific objectives are to assess the time, cost and safety management practice. www.ijcrt.org © 2017 IJCRT | Volume 5, Issue 4 November 2017 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT1704184 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 1418 LITERARURE REVIEW 2.1 Performance Measurement Performance measurement received substantial attention from researchers and the construction industry over the past two decades, thus awareness of the importance use of appropriate performance measures and its role in supporting the application of lean construction concepts (Sarahan. 2002). However, very few companies systematically measure their performance in a holistic way. Moreover, the existing systems tend to focus more on product and less on process and design. The construction Industry performance is affected by national economies (Navon, 2005). This can lead to the sub-optimal quality of the performance measurement system, the misjudging of relative performance, and to complacency and the denying of appropriate rewards to the deserving. Previous studies have revealed that performance measurements can be measured in terms of financial and non-financial measures, or the combination of both (Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 OBA, UK). When measurements are being implemented, contractors, consultants and the management team’s performances are blamed as the major reasons for the failure of a particular project. The other project stakeholders, such as client, suppliers, trade contractors and the community at large, are neglected (Takim and Akintoye, 2002). The construction industry has a great impact on the economy of all countries (Assaf,Al-Khalil, and AlHazmi, 1995). Performance measures are applied at different levels: industry, firm, project and activity. Productivity is an important industry level measure while concepts such as efficiency are applied typically at the firm level. In projects, especially construction projects, sustainability measures related to environmental, economic and social sustainability are applied increasingly. Resource uses including waste management is the input component of the productivity formula and also influences primarily environmental and economic sustainability. The importance of performance assessment in construction is to eliminate higher costs and to eliminate any delay as well as value engineering. Therefore, there is need for identifying the key measures of performance that are used commonly in the field of construction and that construction organizations need to develop systems and process to measure in order to satisfy a wide variety of clients (Bhatti, 2013) 2.2 Performance Measurement of Hydropower Construction Ofori (2001) posits that the absence of measurable targets in the development programs to guide and assess, at intervals, the success of their implementation is a possible reason for lack of progress and the persistence of problems in the construction industry. The continuous monitoring of the performance helps the construction industry to improve and sustain the industry. So, the sustainability in the area is very important for the long run. More importantly, the goal could be better achieved if the approach takes into consideration the very peculiar nature of the industry as outlined by Hillebrandt (1984): (i) the nature of the final product, (ii) the structure of the industry and the organization of the construction process, (iii) the determinant of demand, (iv) method of price determination. Beatham et al (2004) notes five problems with this approach in relation to construction companies: 1. They focus on post-event lagging key performance outcomes at a very high level that offered little opportunity to change and were not used by businesses to influence managerial decisions. 2. The key performance indicators were not aligned to the strategy or business objectives of construction companies. 3. They were designed for cross industry benchmarking purposes, but due to a lack of certainty in the data, problems with different procurement routes and lack of validation of results, this level of benchmarking is not thought to be viable. 4. The key performance indicators do not provide a holistic, company-wide representation of the business. 5. They are not incorporated into a Performance Measurement system (PMS). www.ijcrt.org © 2017 IJCRT | Volume 5, Issue 4 November 2017 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT1704184 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 1419 It is the position of this research that the objective of better improvement in the performance of construction industry would be better achieved if the industry is r ightly divided into its major component parts that is clients, contracting firms, consultants, suppliers, publics and other stakeholders. The performance in the hydropower construction depends on various factors. The success factor for the good performance depends on the Project Manager’s Competence, Top Management Support, Monitoring and Feedback by Project Participants, Interaction among project participants and Owners’ Competence. Furthermore, the failure factors for the performance are Conflict among the Project participants, Hostile socio economic and climate condition, PM’s Ignorance and Lack of Knowledge, Faulty Project Conceptualization, Project specific factors and Aggressive competition during tendering (Jha & layer, 2006). 2.3 Measurement of Project Performance Internationally, the traditional (financial) performance management systems were criticized because they are based on lagging indicators that are not sufficient; they give information about the past and they are not helpful to introduce information about causes, areas, and responsibility in case the project succeeded or failed to support decision making and direct future performance (Kaplan and Norton, 1992). Performance measurement was defined as: ‘‘the process of quantifying effectiveness and efficiency of actions.’’(Neely et. al., 1995). The research proposed many tools which employ leading non-financial indicators such as quality, time, productivity, etc. that can lead the performance and not just know it (Bititei and Nudurupati, 2002). Indicators were defined as: "numerical information used to quantify the input, output and performance dimensions of processes, products, programs, projects, services and the overall outcomes of an organization" (NIST,2004). Then, the concept of key performance indicators (KPIs) is rose which is "a measure of performance of an activity critical to organizational and project success" (KPI, 2009). A set of performance indicators have been presented for performance measurement in construction; they are: time, cost, quality, client satisfaction, client changes, business performance and health & safety. The performance measurement hel