Hafiz Zahoor | National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) (original) (raw)

Papers by Hafiz Zahoor

Innovative Production and Construction, 2019

Safe, efficient and user-friendly transportation of people and goods is the premier concern for h... more Safe, efficient and user-friendly transportation of people and goods is the premier concern for highway agencies due to a growing tendency in urbanization, especially in developing countries such as Pakistan. This study presents economic-efficiency analysis of a proposed project, i.e. Rawalpindi Bypass, and an existing roadway structure in Pakistan. determines the transportation demand estimation (TDE), project cost and various savings such as travel time (TT), safety and vehicle operating cost (VOC). As the transportation decision-making (TDM) process usually involves the evaluation of an alternative decision with respect to a base-case DO-NOTHING Scenario, this study considers the existing roadway structure with no improvements as a DO-NOTHING Scenario, whereas the proposed bypass with two lanes in each direction is considered as an alternative. Economic-efficiency analysis is then carried out, for decision-making based on the monetary as well as non-monetary dimensions, using net present value (NPV) and benefit cost ratio (BCR) techniques. The study concludes that the proposed bypass is a viable alternative as compared to the existing roadway. The study's metho dology and findings are expected to help the highway agencies and concerned stakeholders to conduct efficient TDM.

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Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2021

Delays in construction result in a multitude of negative effects on project performance, and seve... more Delays in construction result in a multitude of negative effects on project performance, and severe dismays among participating parties. This study aims to digitize the traditional process of recording and managing the construction delays using Building Information Modeling (BIM). Extensive literature review followed by semi-structure interviews of 21 industry experts were carried out to identify the issues faced by construction stakeholders in managing construction delays. To resolve these issues, a plugin named BIM-based Construction Delays Recorder (BIM-CDR) is developed using Application Programming Interface (API) of the most commonly used BIM software i.e. Autodesk Revit. BIM-CDR provides a centralized repository, encompassing detailed information related to delays, which can be retrieved and visualized to analyze their impact on delay claims. To assess the effectiveness of BIM-CDR, a feasibility study is conducted with the experts’ review panel. The results revealed that BIM-...

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Sustainability, 2021

Water scarcity has become a major problem for many countries, resulting in declining water supply... more Water scarcity has become a major problem for many countries, resulting in declining water supply and creating a need to find alternative solutions. One potential solution is rainwater harvesting (RwH), which allows rainwater to be stored for human needs. This study develops an RwH assessment system through building information modeling (BIM). For this purpose, a hydrological study of Cfa-type climate cities is conducted with the example of Islamabad, Pakistan. The monthly rainfall data of three sites were assessed to determine the volume of the accumulated rainwater and its potential to meet human needs. The average number of people living in a house is taken as the household number. Household number or of the number of employees working at a small enterprise, roofing material, and rooftop area are used as the key parameters for pertinent assessment in the BIM. The data simulated by BIM highlight the RwH potential using five people per house as the occupancy and a 90 m2 rooftop are...

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Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 2019

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Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 2019

Appropriate risk allocation and sharing are significant critical success factors for public-priva... more Appropriate risk allocation and sharing are significant critical success factors for public-private partnership projects, but evidence suggests that poor risk allocation practices prevail. This signifies the need to develop a robust model for assisting stakeholders in risk allocation decision-making. A non-additive fuzzy integral based multiple attribute risk allocation decision approach is proposed to effectively aggregate each stakeholder’s risk management capability assessment on accepted risk allocation principles that are derived from qualitative judgements and experience based knowledge of experts. Data collected from privately financed and developed power and transport infrastructure projects in Pakistan are used to demonstrate and validate the model for key risk factors that exhibit variable risk allocation preferences. Comparison of results with an additive aggregation approach confirms suitability of the adopted methodology as it performs better when modelling risk allocat...

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Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019

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International Journal of Technology, 2019

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Procedia Engineering, 2015

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ICCREM 2014, 2014

ABSTRACT A climate of openness in the economic field allows local companies to seize opportunitie... more ABSTRACT A climate of openness in the economic field allows local companies to seize opportunities to enter an overseas market. Intensive penetration of Indonesian contractors into the transnational market has recently begun. Several projects in the Middle East, Africa as well as southeast Asia have continued since the last decade. This study aims to trace Indonesian contractors' involvement outside of their domestic market and identify key factors causing them to pursue these projects. A review of the literature and internet searches indicate that only six Indonesian companies actively play in the overseas construction market. The three aforementioned regions are likewise identified as comfortable places for Indonesian contractors to expand services abroad. Having closeness - in terms of religion, beliefs, socio-culture, similarity in identity and government relationships - is the major contributor to success in overseas construction projects (OCPs). Reference: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1061/9780784413777.063

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Sustainability

The inadequate risk management of public–private partnership (PPP) projects is a principal cause ... more The inadequate risk management of public–private partnership (PPP) projects is a principal cause of project distress or failure. This research seeks to identify and empirically validate measures of effective risk management (ERM) in the context of PPPs in a developing country, a subject that has received scant attention in the extant literature. The research is based on a comprehensive literature review, expert interviews and a questionnaire survey. Mean score ranking and factor analysis were employed to rank and group the identified measures, respectively. Tests were performed to determine the respondents’ agreement and establish the reliability and validity of the survey instrument. Analysis results indicate that all identified measures are important, are distributed over the entire project’s life cycle and exhibit a multi-organizational focus. The most significant measures focus on PPP-specific artifacts and procurement activities that are vital for ERM. Factor analysis establish...

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IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2018

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Architecture, 2022

The identification of significant areas impacting safety performance has always been a key concer... more The identification of significant areas impacting safety performance has always been a key concern for construction management researchers. This paper aims to examine the diversified influence of sensitive sub-categories of demographic variables on construction safety climate (SC). The data relating to fourteen demographic variables and twenty-four formerly validated SC statements were collected from forty-one under-construction high-rise buildings in Pakistan. The variances in respondents’ distribution among various sub-categories of demographic variables, and influence of each sub-category of demographic variables on SC statements were analyzed using cross-tabulation, Spearman’s rho correlation coefficients, independent sample Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. The study comprehends that the employees in the age group of 20 years or below and between 41 and 50 years, engaged for over 48 h per week, having 4 dependent family members, primary education, and/or lesser working e...

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ICCREM 2019

Construction industry is prone to a number of risks due to its dynamic nature and the involvement... more Construction industry is prone to a number of risks due to its dynamic nature and the involvement of several stakeholders. These risks, if left untreated, negatively influence the project's objectives including cost, time, and quality. Numerous studies have been conducted globally to find the potential risks faced by construction industry; however, they aren't alike in all the regions. Thus, identifying and mitigating the potential risks, pertinent to a specific region, is an important milestone in the success of construction projects. This study, therefore, attempts to identify seventy-three key risk factors related to delay, cost overrun, and quality, affecting the performance of building projects in Pakistan, through an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews. The identified factors were then prioritized, by the industry experts from both public and private sectors, using a questionnaire survey. The study discusses the influence of top five risk factors, in detail. The findings are expected to help, key stakeholders in Pakistan, in effective planning and monitoring of building projects at various stages; thus completing the projects within the allocated time, budgeted cost, and desired quality level. The study's methodology and results can be generalized, with cautious, in other regions and cultures having similar work environment.

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Sustainability, 2022

The inadequate risk management of public-private partnership (PPP) projects is a principal cause ... more The inadequate risk management of public-private partnership (PPP) projects is a principal cause of project distress or failure. This research seeks to identify and empirically validate measures of effective risk management (ERM) in the context of PPPs in a developing country, a subject that has received scant attention in the extant literature. The research is based on a comprehensive literature review, expert interviews and a questionnaire survey. Mean score ranking and factor analysis were employed to rank and group the identified measures, respectively. Tests were performed to determine the respondents' agreement and establish the reliability and validity of the survey instrument. Analysis results indicate that all identified measures are important, are distributed over the entire project's life cycle and exhibit a multi-organizational focus. The most significant measures focus on PPP-specific artifacts and procurement activities that are vital for ERM. Factor analysis established six critical underlying dimensions for the ERM of PPP projects. The extracted factors generally acknowledge the need for expert public-and private-sector project stakeholders with mature organizational structures, business processes and relevant experience to successfully handle and deliver PPP projects. Furthermore, a comprehensive PPP policy and sound legal and regulatory frameworks are essential for supporting the ERM of PPP projects. The findings will enable a better understanding of factors that influence the quality and outcomes of risk management efforts and promote sustainable infrastructure development via PPPs, where the success of a project strongly relies on positively managing a project's risks in the economic and the social domains. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14149

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ICCREM 2020

Construction industry is playing the role of an important pillar in today's economy. With... more Construction industry is playing the role of an important pillar in today's economy. With the growing market and increasing complexity in construction projects, firms are vulnerable to swelling risks more than ever. A firm's decision to bid or not for a perspective project impacts both the project's success as well as generation of profit for the company. This study focuses to inspect the strategic intrinsic factors influencing the bid/no-bid decision of Pakistani contractors. A questionnaire survey sent to 300 contractors listed with Pakistan Engineering Council was used to collect data. "Financial position of firm" and "ability to fulfill the need of bid" in firm related factors, "management staff must know the conditions of the site" and "the project should increase the experience of the management staff" in management and carrying related factors, "method of bid evaluation of client" and "politician's pressure on the client" in client related factors were recognized to be the most critical intrinsic factors impacting the bid/no-bid decision of firms. Furthermore, the study identified that the bidding decision is highly dictated by the client and firm's internal environment. A better evaluation of these can result in better bidding decisions eventually leading to a higher project success rate in the industry. Maqsoom, A., Shaheen, I., Asshraf, H., Zahoor, H., and Khan, S.Y. (2020). Intrinsic factors influencing the bid/no-bid decision of Pakistani contractors. In ASCE's Conference (ICCREM 2020 - Intelligent Construction and Sustainable Buildings), August 24-25 (pp. 602–610), Stockholm, Sweden.

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Revista Ingeniería de Construcción

Undefinable nature of overseas markets substantially impacts the enterprises’ decision to pursue ... more Undefinable nature of overseas markets substantially impacts the enterprises’ decision to pursue projects abroad. This study aims at identifying and prioritizing the determinant factors which considerably influence the decision to go/not go for projects in overseas from the Indonesian construction enterprises’ (ICEs) perspective. A comprehensive literature review purposed to identify the determinant factors of enterprises’ decision in selecting overseas projects was undertaken at the beginning of study. Of 131 successfully identified, 31 factors were specified after a series of following screening methods. Firstly, the factors having similar meaning were incorporated into a term. A tally technique to indicate frequency of the factor appearance then was applied for which four times emergence as cut-off point. A two-round Delphi survey involving 11 industrial experts was carried out to assess the importance and frequency level of risk occurrence of the 31-factors. Significant index (S...

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Innovative Production and Construction, 2019

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Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2021

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Sustainability, 2021

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Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 2019

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Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 2019

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Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019

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International Journal of Technology, 2019

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Procedia Engineering, 2015

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ICCREM 2014, 2014

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Sustainability

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IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2018

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Architecture, 2022

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ICCREM 2019

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Sustainability, 2022

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ICCREM 2020

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Revista Ingeniería de Construcción

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3rd International Conference on Research Methodology for Built Environment and Engineering (ICRMBEE-2017), IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2018

A critical part when a company targeting a foreign market is how to make a better decision in con... more A critical part when a company targeting a foreign market is how to make a better decision in connection with potential project selection. Since different attributes of information are often incomplete, imprecise and ill-defined in overseas projects selection, the process of decision making by relying on the experiences and intuition is a risky attitude. This paper aims to demonstrate a decision support method in deciding overseas construction projects (OCPs). An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), the amalgamation of Neural Network and Fuzzy Theory, was used as decision support tool to decide to go or not go on OCPs. Root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of correlation (R) were employed to identify the ANFIS system indicating an optimum and efficient result. The optimum result was obtained from ANFIS network with two input membership functions, Gaussian membership function (gaussmf) and hybrid optimization method. The result shows that ANFIS may help the decision-making process for go/not go decision in OCPs.

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ICCREM 2018 - Innovative Technology and Intelligent Construction, 2018

Construction sector of Pakistan has rapidly developed with a higher growth rate of 9.05 percent d... more Construction sector of Pakistan has rapidly developed with a higher growth rate of 9.05 percent during the period 2016-2017. However, a poor record of completing the projects in allocated time, cost, and with desired results is observed. One of the reasons for such poor performance is sticking to the traditional management practices that can be easily overcome with the implementation of building information modeling (BIM) tools. This study attempts to educate the stakeholders of the public sector of construction industry in Pakistan, as to how BIM can help them in minimizing the problems being faced during construction. BIM was implemented on a running construction project of a government hospital. The results were then presented to the key stakeholders, and they were asked to rank how BIM can help them in overcoming the problems. The stakeholders were generally convinced to use BIM on future construction projects, and agreed to take appropriate measures for BIM implementation in their departments. This research is expected to help in enhancing the performance of construction industry through BIM implementation.

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ICCREM 2020 - Intelligent Construction and Sustainable Buildings, 2020

Construction firms are of crucial importance when it comes to the development of the nation. Give... more Construction firms are of crucial importance when it comes to the development of the nation. Given the complex web of communication and sets of preferences, the construction industry faces innumerable challenges. Of most criticalities that are commonly observed in the industry, it is the time overrun that accounts for most of the adversities faced by the construction industry of Pakistan. These factors may include communication and coordination factors, contract management factors, design and documentation factors, and finance management factors. The concurrent study aims to determine the magnitude and prioritize these designated factors upon the time overruns in the surveyed firms that may further lead to delineations such as cost overruns. To accomplish the research objectives a survey was carried out, being based upon 113 construction projects being run under supervision of respective firms. As per our deduction it was the lack of coordination in the design phase that did account for the time delays in the subjected firms. While contract management factors marked the poor project management as the leading factor to cause the time related adversities. In the similar context, design and documentation factors classified the design changes during construction as important consideration. Whereas finance management factors indicated the monthly payment difficulties from the agencies to lead to the time delay in the construction projects on the national scale. The concurrent study is of vital importance in terms of bridging the contextual gap by surveying the construction firms in a developing nation such as Pakistan. Moreover, the theoretical progression was addressed by the current study by including the designated factors cumulatively in a single model and testing for them statistically.

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ICCREM 2020 - Intelligent Construction and Sustainable Buildings, 2020

Construction industry is playing the role of an important pillar in today's economy. With the gro... more Construction industry is playing the role of an important pillar in today's economy. With the growing market and increasing complexity in construction projects, firms are vulnerable to swelling risks more than ever. A firm's decision to bid or not for a perspective project impacts both the project's success as well as generation of profit for the company. This study focuses to inspect the strategic intrinsic factors influencing the bid/no-bid decision of Pakistani contractors. A questionnaire survey sent to 300 contractors listed with Pakistan Engineering Council was used to collect data. "Financial position of firm" and "ability to fulfill the need of bid" in firm related factors, "management staff must know the conditions of the site" and "the project should increase the experience of the management staff" in management and carrying related factors, "method of bid evaluation of client" and "politician's pressure on the client" in client related factors were recognized to be the most critical intrinsic factors impacting the bid/no-bid decision of firms. Furthermore, the study identified that the bidding decision is highly dictated by the client and firm's internal environment. A better evaluation of these can result in better bidding decisions eventually leading to a higher project success rate in the industry.

Maqsoom, A., Shaheen, I., Asshraf, H., Zahoor, H., and Khan, S.Y. (2020). Intrinsic factors influencing the bid/no-bid decision of Pakistani contractors. In ASCE's Conference (ICCREM 2020 - Intelligent Construction and Sustainable Buildings), August 24-25 (pp. 602–610), Stockholm, Sweden.

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ASCE's Conference (ICCREM 2014 - Smart Construction and Management in the Context of New Technology), Kunming, China. https://goo.gl/0ZB4zb, 2014

A climate of openness in the economic field allows local companies to seize opportunities to ente... more A climate of openness in the economic field allows local companies to seize opportunities to enter an overseas market. Intensive penetration of Indonesian contractors into the transnational market has recently begun. Several projects in the Middle East, Africa as well as southeast Asia have continued since the last decade. This study aims to trace Indonesian contractors' involvement outside of their domestic market and identify key factors causing them to pursue these projects. A review of the literature and internet searches indicate that only six Indonesian companies actively play in the overseas construction market. The three aforementioned regions are likewise identified as comfortable places for Indonesian contractors to expand services abroad. Having closeness - in terms of religion, beliefs, socio-culture, similarity in identity and government relationships - is the major contributor to success in overseas construction projects (OCPs).
https://goo.gl/0ZB4zb,
https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784413777.063

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CIB W099 International Conference on Modeling and Building Health and Safety, Sep 11, 2012

Safety non performance has not only led to higher accident rates but has also lowered overall pro... more Safety non performance has not only led to higher accident rates but has also lowered overall productivity in the construction industry. The situation can be improved by enhancing the standards of safety practices. This paper presents a methodology to identify the most neglected safety practices requiring special emphasis for improvement. The study was conducted using a questionnaire survey comprising of 60 safety practices. Data collected through 230 questionnaires from 43 construction companies working on 30 projects in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences. All the safety practices were prioritized basing on their mean safety performance values. Results have highlighted that the mean safety performance of construction industry is 61.38 percent. Construction safety practices requiring special emphasis are identified as; (a) safety training for the workers of subcontractors, (b) refresher safety training sessions for all workers, (c) awareness among workers to not take unnecessary risks, (d) subcontractors participation in safety meetings, and (e) providing job specific safety training to workers. Results have also highlighted that the factor of ‘safety training’ has the lowest safety performance level, followed by ‘safety in the contract documents’, ‘safety meetings’ and ‘worker’s involvement’. The results of this study may provide useful information to construction stakeholders to provide safe work environment.
http://goo.gl/bpwghH

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1st International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering, Management and Sciences (ICETEMS-2014), City University of Science and Information Technology (CUSIT), 2014

The Hong Kong construction industry is currently facing ageing problem and labour shortage. There... more The Hong Kong construction industry is currently facing ageing problem and labour shortage. There are opportunities for employing ethnic minority construction workers to join this hazardous industry. These ethnic minority workers are prone to accidents due to communication barriers.
Safety communication is playing an important role for avoiding the accidents on construction sites. However, the ethnic minority workers are not very fluent in the local language and facing safety communication problems while working with local workers. Social network analysis (SNA), being an effective tool to identify the safety communication flow on the construction site, is used to attain the measures of safety communication like centrality, density and betweenness within the ethnic minorities and local workers, and to generate sociograms that visually represent communication pattern within the effective and ineffective safety networks. The aim of this paper is to present the application of SNA for improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong. The paper provides the theoretical background of SNA approaches for the data collection and analysis using the software UCINET and NetDraw, to determine the predominant safety communication network structure and pattern of ethnic minorities on site.

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The Construction, Building and Real Estate Research Conference of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS COBRA AUBEA 2015), Sydney, 2015

In recent years, the expansion and involvement of Indonesian contractor companies in overseas eng... more In recent years, the expansion and involvement of Indonesian contractor companies in overseas engineering projects have significantly increased, notably in three major regions, South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. In this study, an initial investigation into the motivations and entry strategies of Indonesian enterprises aimed at overseas expansion is discussed. Six contractors having the overseas experience are involved in this study. To achieve the objective, two part questions were prepared and a literature review was carried out based on contractors' annual reports. Based on the annual reports, the profile of the contractors was presented. The results show that several considerations motivated the contractors to pursue overseas projects. The three main ones being to increase profitability, government stimulation, market expansion and globalization ambitions. The main market entry modes, considered by contractors, were found to be the formation of strategic alliances, the establishment of representative offices and taking part in joint venture projects.
https://goo.gl/qmDbCH,
http://hdl.handle.net/10397/67668

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8th International Structural Engineering and Construction Conference (ISEC-08), Sydney, 2015

The construction industry is deemed to be one of the most dangerous industries worldwide due to i... more The construction industry is deemed to be one of the most dangerous industries worldwide due to its special characteristics of production process. Globalization has brought about an increasing number of construction companies involving themselves in the international construction market. Due to involvement of participants from different countries and regions, international construction projects possess complexities from national, organizational and individual perspectives which may affect construction safety management adversely and lead to unsatisfactory safety performance. Safety climate, defined as " a unified set of cognitions regarding the safety aspects of the organization " , is often considered to be a predictor of safety behavior and performance. After conducting a comprehensive review of existing literature related to safety climate measurement in construction sector, this study highlights several conditions for selecting suitable safety climate instruments specific in international construction projects.
https://www.isec-society.org/ISEC_PRESS/ISEC_08/pdf/CS-14_v5_489.pdf

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7th International Civil Engineering Congress (ICEC-2015) 'Sustainable Development through Advancements in Civil Engineering', The Institution of Engineers, Karachi, Pakistan, 2015

Comprehensive review of construction safety research is presented in this paper, aiming at summar... more Comprehensive review of construction safety research is presented in this paper, aiming at summarizing the completed research work in Pakistan. It includes eleven journal papers, two dissertations and thirty two conference papers. Construction accidents are mostly caused by; fall from height, followed by electrocution. Safety non-compliance is attributed to; non-existence of a regulatory authority, delusion that investing in safety will increase the project cost, workers’ unawareness, and unrealistic deadlines. Though Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) is conducting safety awareness workshops for engineers and supervisors, no training is planned for construction workers. Few private institutes are also providing safety training but only on commercial basis. The deteriorating safety situation can be enhanced by ensuring management’s commitment and employees’ involvement, effective supervision and communication, safety education and training, and accident reporting mechanism. It has also been recommended to establish occupational health and safety regulatory authority, redefine and enforce safety laws, and launch media campaigns to create awareness among workers. PEC is suggested to enhance the safety performance by; allocating the safety budget and responsibilities in contract documents, incorporating safety credit points in contractor licensing process, and maintaining accident statistics. Potential research areas are also identified to kindle the construction safety research in Pakistan.

http://iepkarachi.org.pk/Downloads/ICEC-2015%20_%20Full%20proceedings.pdf

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ASCE's International Conference on Construction and Real Estate Management 2019 (ICCREM2019), 2019

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13th International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPGRC 2017), University of Salford, Manchester UK, 2017

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are being heralded as a potentially promising alternative to o... more Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are being heralded as a potentially promising alternative to overcome the chronic inefficiencies which characterize the traditional public infrastructure delivery and shortage of development budgets to meet increasing demands for public services. However, such arrangements present their own set of challenges which are primarily attributable to the complex organizational structures and long duration of underlying contractual relationships. In particular, the need for effective risk management becomes all the more important to ensure a successful project and a lapse in this domain is known to deliver disastrous outcomes. Pakistan, a developing country with a large population, abundant natural resources and geopolitical significance, boasts all the drivers to promote and benefit from PPPs. It also harbors elements that expose the stakeholders to significant risks. Therefore, a research framework is developed to identify critical risks, determine risk allocation practices, develop robust models for efficient project risk assessment and allocation, and determine measures to ensure efficient risk management on future PPP projects. Existing literature is reviewed and summarized to determine the significance, drivers, barriers, and risk management characteristics of infrastructure PPPs in the Pakistani context. In addition, results of the preliminary interviews with experts have uncovered multiple lifecycle risks and suggest immature and unsystematic risk management practices, which subsequently inform the development of the research framework.

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Chapter 6: Construction Health and Safety in Developing Countries, 1st Ed. Edited by Patrick Manu, Fidelis Emuze, Tarcisio Abreu Saurin and Bonaventura Hadikusumo. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2019

Though large construction companies in Pakistan are following various safety management systems, ... more Though large construction companies in Pakistan are following various safety management systems, unsafe behaviours and unsafe conditions are at times noticed resulting in fatal accidents. This necessitates exploring the root causes of such accidents as well as identifying the significant safety climate (SC) factors that can positively influence the safety performance (SP) in the Pakistani construction industry (CI). For this study, a mixed-method research strategy comprising concurrent and sequential research methods was adopted. The study concludes that accidents in the Pakistani CI can be reduced by strict enforcement of safety rules and regulations by government agencies; guaranteed provision of a safety budget; and the introduction of safety incentives by the clients, adequate provision of safety training and resources by the contractors, and giving due importance to past SP while selecting the subcontractors. A 24-item SC scale, comprised of four SC factors, was developed and validated for the Pakistani CI. The study also verified the significant positive impact of SC on safety compliance and safety participation , and the negative impact on the number of self-reported accidents/injuries. The analysis of demographic variables confirmed that the employees in the age group of 20 years or below, and working for more than 40 hours per week, have a tendency towards unsafe behaviour. The study adds to the body of knowledge by highlighting the implications of adopting an existing SC scale across the region and culture, and revealing the deviations in SC dimensions. Caution should be exercised while generalizing the research findings to other sectors of CI. Nonetheless, the study's robust methodology can be replicated in other industries and regions for element prioritization and SC investigation.
https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429455377
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/strategies-enhance-safety-performance-construction-industry-pakistan-hafiz-zahoor-albert-chan/e/10.1201/9780429455377-6

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Innovative Production and Construction, 2019

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PhD Dissertation, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2017

The sectoral share of construction in the GDP of Pakistan has consistently increased from 2.42 to... more The sectoral share of construction in the GDP of Pakistan has consistently increased from 2.42 to 2.58 percent during the last decade; reflecting its momentous contribution in country’s economic development. However, construction is continuously suffering from the highest accident rate (14.55% in 2006-2007 to 16.3% in 2014-2015) among all the industries. Most of the construction accidents occur on building projects mainly due to fall from height. Though large construction companies working on multi-storey building projects are following various safety management systems, unsafe behaviors and unsafe conditions are at times noticed, and the employees continue to suffer from fatal accidents mostly due to fall from height. This necessitates exploring the root causes of such accidents as well as identifying the significant safety climate (SC) factors. A focus on these factors would improve the employees’ safety behavior which in turn will enhance the overall safety performance (SP) on these projects.
The current study, therefore, aims to investigate the relationship between SC and SP in the construction of multi-storey buildings in Pakistan. The specific objectives are to: examine the current safety practices in the construction industry (CI); identify the contributory factors of accident causation on building projects; determine the SC factors that can significantly enhance SP on building projects; examine the causal relationship between SC factors and SP indicators; examine the effects of demographic variables on SC; and finally, recommend strategies to enhance SP in the construction of multi-storey building projects in Pakistan.
A mixed-method research strategy comprising concurrent and sequential research methods is adopted in this study. The current safety practices are summarized based on the literature review and interview results. The thirty-two contributory factors of accident causation are shortlisted through a triangulation strategy encompassing eight face-to-face semi-structured interviews with academic and industry experts, coupled with reviewing fifty-eight studies. To prioritize these factors, Delphi survey and inter-rater agreement analysis are conducted among four respondent groups: clients, contractors, safety officials and academic experts. The SC data (N=426), collected through questionnaire survey from forty under-construction multi-storey building projects, are split randomly to achieve two samples. To identify and validate the significant SC factors, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are conducted on calibration and validation sub-samples respectively. To investigate the influence of identified SC factors on SP indicators, a SP measurement model is hypothesized and tested. Finally, the effects of various demographic variables on SC are examined.
The study has identified three most significant accident causation factors: poor enforcement of safety rules and regulations by the Government agencies; insufficient allocation of safety budget and safety incentives by the client; and insufficient provision of safety training and resources by the contractor. As the developed SC scale of Hong Kong CI could not be cross-validated in Pakistani CI, this study suggested integrating the cultural and regional values while cross-validating an existing scale. Consequently, a 24-item SC scale is developed and validated for building projects in Pakistan. It consists of four factors: management commitment and employees’ involvement in health and safety; safety enforcement and promotion (SE&P); applicability of safety rules and safe work practices (SR&WP); and safety consciousness and responsibility. The study discovers SE&P as one of the most significant SC factors influencing the SP, whereas SR&WP is identified as the most overlooked SC factor. In addition, it develops a SP measurement model and verifies the significant positive impact of SC on safety compliance and safety participation, and negative impact on number of self-reported accidents/injuries. Contrary to some of the previous studies, safety compliance has established the strongest positive impact on SP as compared with safety participation and number of self-reported accidents/injuries. While examining the influence of ten demographic variables on employees’ safety behavior, the study highlights various employees groups that can be targeted for achieving an enhanced SP level. Lastly, based on the analysis of causes of accidents, demographic variables and SP measurement model, strategies are recommended for enhancing the SP on building projects in Pakistan. These strategies may help the construction stakeholders to prioritize their efforts towards achieving a zero-accident rate.
The study adds to the body of knowledge by: ranking the underlying causes of construction accidents as per their significance; highlighting the implications of adopting an existing SC scale across the region and culture; revealing the deviations in SC dimensions such as discovering SE&P as a new SC factor; and developing a SP measurement model for building projects in Pakistan that can be generalized in developing countries sharing similar work environment. In addition, the study introduces the applicability of inter-rater agreement analysis technique for the analysis and validation of Delphi survey data. The study advocates conducting more cross-validation studies to test the applicability of designed SC scale in other developing regions and cultures. As the scope of this study is limited to multi-storey building projects in Pakistan, caution may be exercised while generalizing the research findings to other sectors of CI. Nonetheless, the study’s robust methodology can be replicated in other industries and regions for element prioritization and SC investigation.
https://theses.lib.polyu.edu.hk/handle/200/8830
http://ira.lib.polyu.edu.hk/handle/10397/85734

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MS Dissertation, National University of Sciences and Technology, 2012

Construction industry (CI) is one of the most hazardous industries where workers are more prone t... more Construction industry (CI) is one of the most hazardous industries where workers are more prone to accidents. These accidents can be reduced by improving the safety performance of CI through a benchmarking approach. This approach helps the construction companies to compare their safety performance with the industry best practices. It ultimately leads the companies to superior safety performance by evaluating their weaknesses and incorporating the best safety practices. This study presents the mechanism to identify the weaknesses in current safety practices of CI of Pakistan through benchmarking and suggests measures to improve it. The study is undertaken via a questionnaire based survey comprising of 60 safety practices. Data collected from 54 construction projects located in 16 different cities of Pakistan, is analyzed using SPSS.
Results demonstrate that the safety performance of Pakistani CI is not satisfactory. Major findings of this study include; non-existence of a regulatory authority to implement safety, more emphasis on productivity by all stakeholders, clients aversion to provide any budget for safety, contractors reluctance to invest more on safety, and workers unawareness towards their rights. The most neglected safety practices requiring special emphasis are; (a) safety training for the workers of subcontractors, (b) refresher safety training sessions, (c) workers¢ education for not taking unnecessary risks, (d) participation of subcontractors in safety meetings, and (e) providing job specific safety training. Benchmarking of eight mega projects against their safety performance indicates that the factor of ‘safety training’ has the lowest safety performance level, followed by ‘safety in the contract documents’, ‘safety meetings’ and ‘worker’s involvement’. The study recommends establishing an administrative body for occupational safety and health under the ministry of ‘Professional and Technical Training’ which may work in collaboration with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) to provide safety training and evaluate the safety performance of all registered construction companies periodically. Safety credit points may be incorporated in the process of contractors registration, enlistment and renewal, and a record of occupational injuries and fatalities may be maintained and published annually so as to benchmark the safety performance of all registered construction companies.
https://bit.ly/3gJrJlA
https://goo.gl/l0noHt

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