BACKGROUND: Improvement and prevention of postoperative clinical complications related to pain can be easily brought about by an effective post operative analgesia. Preoperative infiltration of local anaesthetics at the incision site along with general anaesthesia significantly eases the postoperative pain management. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the analgesic effect of preincisional infiltration of levobupivacaine HCl 0.25% and ropivacaine HCl 0.375% in patients undergoing lower abdominal surgery. METHOD: Hundred American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) grade I and II patients (20–60 years) posted for elective lower abdominal surgery under general anesthesia were selected for this study. The anaesthetic technique was standardized for both groups. Patients were assigned randomly into two groups and preincisional surgical field infiltration with 5 ml of 0.75% ropivacaine plus 5 ml of 0.9% normal saline (group A: n=50) or 5 ml of 0.5% levobupivacaine plus 5 ml of 0.9% normal saline (group B: n=50) was performed. The quality of analgesia was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain recorded at multiple time intervals in post operative period. RESULTS:  Both the study groups showed similar post operative analgesic effect. CONCLUSION: Preoprative infiltration with 0.375% ropivacaine or 0.25% levobupivacaine is similarly effective in reducing the postoperative pain associated with lower abdominal surgery.