Classification of Factors Affecting Labour Productivity in Hilly Areas

Abstract

Construction Industry is considered as the back bone of the developing countries which not only improves its infrastructure but also gives boost to its economy by providing jobs to millions of peoples. But construction industry faces many problems these days. One such great problems is of poor labour productivity faced by construction industry. Several developed countries are now focussing on these issues to find the factors that have negative impacts on labour productivity but no such study was carried out in hilly areas. This study tries to overcome this gap and thus the hilly region of the great Himalayas were considered for this study. Questionnaire survey were conducted in Shimla city of Himachal Pradesh, India on construction personals with considerable experience in construction works of hilly areas. A total of 51 factors were selected from the recommendations of past research works and these factors were divided into six groups, namely, (1) Work and Payment factors, (2) Labour issues, (3) Poor project management, (4) Poor site management, (5) Labour Welfare, (6) External and Unforeseen factors. Classified of the factors were done as critical, moderate and mild impacting on construction labour productivity on the basis of severity index. Factor analysis such as relative importance index, frequency index was done to understand the relationships among the factors. It was observed as Fairness of pay, Performance incentives, Weather conditions and Payment delays were the top severe factors in hilly areas affecting labour productivity. Recommendations to remove the effects of these factors were also given in the end of this study. Considering the outcomes of this study in the construction projects of hilly areas project cost can be reduced considerably