Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on construction organisations in India: a case study

The construction sector in India employs nearly 60 million people, so the unprecedented 2 month lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19 in 2020 had devastating economic and social effects. The reduced demand for projects slowed demand for downstream industries, increased labour migration to villages and reduced logistics support for supplies and resources. This paper reports on the challenges experienced by one of India’s leading construction organisations on a major metro contract in Mumbai. It describes the impact of the pandemic on project delivery, including time, cost and supply chain issues, and discusses the mitigation strategies adopted.