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Techniques and Challenges in Construction and Project Management-A

Review of Fast Track Construction of Hotels in India

Article · January 2016

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 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1

Techniques and Challenges in Construction and Project

Management - A Review of Fast Track Construction of Hotels in
India

Ar.Anshul Srivastava1, Ar.Nitesh Dogne2, Ashish Choudhary3, Dr.R.K.Pandit4

1
Project Manager, Central Park Infrastructure Development Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon, India
2
Assistant Professor, Anand College of Architecture, Agra, India
4
Director, 3,4Madhav Institute of Technology & Science, Gwalior, India
E-mail: nitesh.arch@gmail.com

Abstract
The construction projects are broadly categorized into Green Field Projects and Brown
Field Projects. In recent years, Indian Construction Industry practices have set benchmark
globally through adaption of planned policies, better quality standards and ability to
complete projects within the defined time frame. Here, comes the concept of Project and
Construction Management. Within this sector of building construction allied with civil,
structure, interior and services, Project Management can be defined on the thumb rule of five
stages involved , which are interconnected and can be categorized as Initiate, Plan, Design,
Construction, Close out and Handover. Majorly the difference between Project Management
and Construction Management can be summarized as Project Management being associated
mainly with planning, designing, budgeting and co-ordination, on the other hand
Construction Management is associated majorly with on-site execution, building
construction quality standards, design co-ordination and creating availability of work-front
to other allied agencies of the project in order to set the benchmark for better results in
construction sector. Project Management Companies or Construction Management
Companies have taken a lead in being integrated as a self-sustainable division for delivering
services to these projects in proper manner and timely completion, as it is being very well
said “Time is essence for all”. On the contrary, there are numerous apprehensive
construction techniques and challenges involved in Project Management and Construction
Management that reforms the key essence of this research paper and shall be dealt in detail
along with referential case studies subsequently.

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 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1

Keywords: Green field projects, brown field projects, project and construction management,
work front, self-sustainable division, PMC (Project Management Company)

INTRODUCTION  Design.
Indian PMCs associated with construction  Construct.
of hotels generally work on the thumb rule  Close Out and Handover.
of following critical stages:
 Initiate.
 Plan.

Fig. 1: Sequential Activity Programme of a Greenfield Project.

For the better identification of challenges hotel project justifies the requirement of
involved with construction management hospitality segment [1]. Proposals in terms
we need to first detail out various of Market analysis, Financial Budgets,
techniques and challenges involved with Investment schedules and Future
Project and Construction Management. Prospective of the Development are being
worked out in this phase along with
Initiate consideration of key vision of Owner or
This stage includes the conceptual and Developer regarding the Project
perceptual visualization of a Project and Development. The project officially
its expected results in Hotel Industry post begins after obtaining required statutory
completion. This phase is the beginning of approvals and henceforth further Project
the project. The motive of this phase is to Planning initiates.
examine the feasibility of the construction
of hotel. In addition, decisions are made Key Objectives
concentrating which agency is likened to  Aim of Project.
carry out the project, which party (or  Project Feasibility in Terms of Site.
parties) will be involved as operators of  Developers, Investors and Operators.
the hotel and whether the future of that  Project Outcome.

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 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1

 Constraints, Hindrances and document-scope, Budget, tasks, schedules,

Challenges. costs, risk, quality and other allied project
requirement [2]. This phase include all the
Plan activities necessary for the management
This phase deals with deployment of a team to establish the project staffing,
dedicated team to work on the Project with project infrastructure and financial
full-fledged resource required for setting management, along with all the project
plans to guide the team about various management plans, including the
phases of the construction. The purpose of appropriate levels of pre-planning
the Planning Phase is to identify and documentation for the following phases.

Budget
Schedule
Macro Schedule
Micro Schedule: Working Tracking
Appointment of Consultants

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 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Final Deal of Client with all these
Consultant and Related Paperwork
Analysing Possible Risks during
Construction Phase
The plans created during this phase help
PMCs to manage time, cost, quality,
change, risk and issues. They also help to
manage staff and external suppliers, to
ensure that PMCs deliver the project to the
client on time and within budget [3].
Design
The list of requirements that is carried out
in the planning phase is used to make
design choices and decisions. In the design
phase, multiple designs are developed,
with which the fruitful project result can
positively be achieved. The Project
Management team ready with set of
requirements for the work-front and
strategies of work flow and conceptual
system of design, briefs all the associated
consultant depending on the nature and
size of the project, the outcomes of the
design phase can include drawings,
conceptual sketches, flow charts, site
trees, prototypes, photos, views, statistics,
bills etc.
The project supervisors and client use
these designs to choose the definitive
design that will be used to carry out the
construction of the hotel. Even, if the
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Volume 1 Issue 1
project is small and the requirements are
simple, there is still need of a brain
storming and a mental design process that
takes place between understanding the
brief and starting the actual design. Design
becomes more and more significant as the
size of project becomes larger. The design
phase is where participants look for more
potential solutions of problems and
requirements briefed to them by PMC
separately or collectively [4]. From those
various solution PMCs and the owner of
the project narrow down the choices that
fit in the projects as per given budget and
time. In short the design phase is one in
which all questions of “how” are
answered. In this phase the Project
Management team starts the work related
with creating the project's outline related
to deliverables, strategy, business cases
and Project Initiation Document as their
starting point.
At the end of the Design Phase, PMC
seeks for a defined logical solution. The
solution is said to be "logical" only
because it is documented on paper or any
other media used as design tool. This set
of logical solutions is then transferred to
the next phase, that is, Construction Phase,
where these logical solutions are turned
into real physical solutions.
 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Construct
This phase is the fourth of phases of
construction management of hotel
construction and is meant to construct the
hotel as per the drawings, plan and
specifications at the best quality level
included in papers documents within the
schedule, budget and scope constrained
and accepted by the client of the project.
The Project Plan should have been
completed and outlined by this time as
well. During this phase, the PMC executes
the work described in all of the plans,
processes and procedures described to
client at macro and micro levels. Genuine
attention is paid to the construction and
quality of services from all consultants,
organizations, and offices. The associated
consultants are responsible for providing
their services in this phase. This phase in
terms of general project management is
the phase of execution. This phase is
usually the longest phase in the project life
cycle and it typically consumes the most
energy and the most resources. T enables
PMC to supervise, monitor and control the
actions during the construction; PMC will
need to execute a broad range of
construction management processes.
These processes help PMC to manage
cost, time, quality and other essence of
project. Execution (or implementation) is
the phase in which the plan derived in the
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Volume 1 Issue 1
prior phases of the project life are put into
real action on site. The purpose of this is
to deliver the project expected results to
the owner of the hotel (deliverable and
other diagonal and direct outputs). During
the construction the PMC utilizes all the
schedules, procedures and templates that
were prepared and presented to client
during prior phases.
Once a project moves into the phase of
construction, it is necessary that project
team and the resources associated with the
project should be in proper place and must
be ready to perform project activities. The
whole project team and specially the
Project Manager’s focus now shifts from
planning the project efforts on papers to
participating in, supervising, observing,
and analysing the work being done in this
phase as this is the most crucial phase
prone to mistakes and changes .
Close-Out and Handover
Project close-out and handover is the last
phase of the whole construction
management process. Upon the end of
construction phase, primary and important
acceptance of the project result is
accomplished; yet minor items may still
be open with scope to work more on. Once
all the requirements of hotel are achieved,
it is time to hand over the hotel project to
 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1

client and closeout the project. If the final  Final Report.

result of the project is as per the  Project Audit.
acceptance criteria documented by the  Provision of People Trained on
client, the project then will be duly Operating Well Hotel with Best
accepted and paid by the client. Facilities.
 Customer Training.
The objective of PMCs is to obtain owner  Equipment and Hire Returns.
acceptance of the project result. This  Update Risk and Work Registers.
means that the owner agrees that the final  Settle all Invoices and Memos.
quality specifications of the project
 Warranties and Guarantees Settled.
parameters have been met as per his
 Update Financial Systems.
expectations. In order to make this thing
 Documentation of Lessons Learned.
go smoothly, the owner and PMC must
 List of Future Threats to Project.
have well-documented and officially
papered criteria of performance from the
Although, the project close-out and
very beginning of the project. This
handover arte typically the final phase of
information should be documented in the
the project this does not mean that the
project management plan which should
relevant activities should only commence
contain importantly all the changes
when the previous stage is complete. On
requested from the client and forced by
the contrary, it can be seen by the list
conditions through the life of the project.
above that work such as as-built drawings
Objective and measurable criteria are
should be developed as the project
always best on the contrary subjective
progresses through the earlier stages and
criteria are challenging, risky and open to
be ready for handover as soon as the work
interpretation. There should not be any
is complete. Finally, project team
room for doubts, mislead, fraud and
members need to be reassigned; surplus
negatives, although, this is often difficult
equipment, materials and supplies
to achieve.
disposed of; and facilities released. Two
The project may not be completed when
key elements of handover are Settlement
delivered to the owner. Some final project
of claims and Feedback from the owner
areas that may need to be considered are:
they both shall be mainly focused on.
 Complete Drawings.
 Documentation Requirements.

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 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1

Techniques

(I) Project and Construction Management (III) Financial Report

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 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1

(II) Project Quality Plan (IV) Project Execution Plan

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Cash Flow Projection and Processing
PMCs associated with construction of
hotels face cash flow projection as a major
challenge. As the project is generally of
long duration and it is very challenging to
predict conditions that the project will go
through. As conditions are unpredictable,
so is the capital that would be used to face
those conditions and keep the project on
track. Cash flow is the main concern of
client and also for PMC.
Adherence of Contractual Obligations
Adherence on contract comes with both
pros and cons. While adherence builds
relation between client and PMC it force
project to compromise either with time,
cost or quality. Sometime PMC have to
force other bodies working on project like
consultants and suppliers in order to stick
to the contract which resultantly cause
conflicts.
Lack of Manpower Deployment
With the motive of saving capital and
reducing risks of conflicts it is seen that
less manpower is deployed on the project.
Also, the man power gradually decreases
during the project and it is
challenging to find labour, PMC as being
responsible for everything on side have to
face the problem of human resource too,
in order to adherence to contract. The
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Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1
work load on left labour then increases too
much resulting in issues like overtime
payment and other such conflicts.
Absence of Qualified Consultants
While the presentation of service to the
client, consultant may pass that test of
selection but sometimes the reality is
paradox to it. Consultants fail in all
manner of presenting thing actually on
site, may it be time issue, cost issue or
quality issue. Consultants consider the
project on just on their part without any
concern that along with them there are
many other issues for the PMC about the
project.
Absence of Qualified Project Manager
Manager appointed by PMC is qualified as
PMC have to maintain their brand name,
but the manager on site appointed by
client for the supervision of PMC and
construction may or may not be
sometimes qualified and experienced and
hence the sync between two is weak
resulting in many challenges and issues.
Statutory Compliances
very It is, sometimes, very difficult to explain
layman the bye-laws and municipal
regulation related to construction. At
various levels labour has to be explained
about the bye-laws regarding their safety
 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
and other issues. Even at times even the
client opposes on such issues of statutory
compliances and force PMC to find
solutions for it.
Pre-Opening
Experiencing factors and demands in the
market, the client enforces the PMC for
the completion of project before time. This
is a challenge for PMC as every schedule
and milestone has to be planned again
according to the new handover time. This
results in quality and cost issues.
Fast Track Project Milestones
If client demands for the fast completion
of project also ask PMC for new project
milestones, it is challenging to come up
with new milestones. From normal phase
the project shifts to new fast track phase
Budget and time both have to be revised
again and a new milestone according to
the fast-track project of structure, services,
interior and hand-over is to be prepared.
This results again in issues of time, cost
and quality of the project. PMC have to
deal with labours as well as client and
conflicts rising resultantly.
Design Changes
Along with these challenges many other
issue result in design change in between
the smooth run of project which itself is a
10 Page 1-11 © MAT Journals 2016. All Rights Reserved
Volume 1 Issue 1
very big challenge for PMC. Design
change may be a result of consultant’s
mistake, structural issue, environmental
issue, socio-politic issue or even the wish
of client. Client might get influenced with
some other contemporary or modern
technique and hence demand for it in
between the project.
CONCLUSION
There are many practical challenges any
PMC may face in project of hotel in India.
Finding their solutions from very root
level and discussing them with client
before the final deal will be beneficial for
project, client as well as PMC. From very
first the schedule shall be proper and must
be positively followed. On daily basis,
tracking of schedules, junctions, aims, risk
and benchmarks must be recorded and
should be briefly studied. This will be
helpful in decision making to get sound
and positive results. Mainly the risks and
negative factors shall be highlighted and
must be worked on and preventive
measures must be found. Issues related to
time, cost and quality must be given
priority and should be discussed with
client openly and PMC should seek for the
solution with their help. From the
selection of site, planning, designing,
construction to hand over of the project,
PMC must consider every critical issue
 Journal of Recent Activities in Architectural Sciences
Volume 1 Issue 1

and must discuss it with client. The man- used as solution to face challenges
power on the site for the purpose of discussed in paper.
construction shall be strong in order to Project Management means/Techniques
eliminate the problems regarding lack of 1. Project Quality Plan.
labour. Issues related to government and 2. Project Development Plan.
other authorities must be presented to the 3. Site Dilapidation Report.
client at the first place, so that their 4. Project Feasibility Report.
solutions may be found and pace of 5. Project Safety Plan.
project remains unhindered. 6. Project Control Group.
As critical remark and solution listed 7. Project Risk Register.
below are some of techniques that can be
8.

REFERENCES
1. Available at: http://www.joneslanglasa
lle.co.in/india/en-
gb/Research/2014Sept-Management-
Contract-Trends.pdf.
2. Available at:
http://www.joneslanglasalle.co.in/india
/en-gb/research.
3. Available at:
http://www.credai.org/credai-times.
4. Available at:
http://www.centralpark.in/hospitality-
page16.html.

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