Rural Residents’ Perception of Construction Project Delays in Pakistan

Shahid Hussain, Fangwei Zhu, Zaigham Ali and Xiaohang Xu
Additional contact information
Shahid Hussain: Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Fangwei Zhu: Faculty of Management and Economics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Zaigham Ali: Department of Business Management, Karakoram International University, Gilgit-Baltistan 15100, Pakistan
Xiaohang Xu: School of Built Environment, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: The construction industry is one of the key sectors that facilitate sustainable economic and social development in the region. Currently, community development mechanisms are adopted by many developed and developing nations, aimed at enhancing economic growth and quality of life along with social welfare of the local community. This study reviews the rural residents’ perception of public construction project delays and aims to explore economic and social challenges confronted by residents, especially in rural areas in Pakistan. A questionnaire with 26 factors identified from the literature was sent to rural educated residents. Through a questionnaire survey, the opinions of rural residents were sought and tested. Based on 366 (73%) valid responses, this study examined the socio-economic influencing factors. The findings of the study revealed that problems faced while traveling, increase the price of consumer goods, high transportation costs, lack of educational opportunities, more expenditures on education, and barriers to primary healthcare access were the top most important factors. Research results confirmed that the delays in construction projects negatively affect the socio-economic conditions of the rural community, which directly influence the rural dwells’ sustainable life. The research findings suggest that the practitioners in public sector organization make sure to execute the project on time and within the quality. Otherwise, it has negative socio-economic implications for the rural community.

Keywords: rural community; economic and social; infrastructure projects; delays; sustainable rural development; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/11/2108/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/11/2108/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:11:p:2108-:d:119535

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().