Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 3, 2008

Construction work on my new house started more than an year ago. Like most projects, it's long past the deadline (several deadlines in fact) and the cost has far exceeded original expectations (as a result of which, I am in debt).

Much of the delay is due to lack of project management. It's not enough that I understand it, the guys doing the work need to understand it too. It's too costly to engage the biggest and the best construction firms for projects of this size. And the small companies are hugely lacking in project management, but when you look at some of the large civil engineering work in Sri Lanka it's damn hard to tell the difference between the small companies and the big companies.

Alcoholism plays a huge part in the delays of many construction projects here. I just heard the sad news that the senior most mason to have worked on my house has just died - cause of death a liver that has been seriously effected by alcohol.

At the end of the day most construction workers toss back a glass or two, some toss back several. You cannot blame them either. They are mostly from remote villages and living in Colombo away from their families is probably stressfully. Work sites rarely contain anything to keep them entertained in the evening. So they make a beeline for the closest bar, the next morning they are too hungover to start work and they make mistakes. The mistakes are usually trivial but they add up.

Posted by raditha at May 3, 2008 3:32 PM