Road To No Where

The Indian economy poised to grow anywhere around 7 percent in the current financial year that is among the top growth percentage only after China. There are lots of things said and written about the infrastructure need for sustaining our current growth and moving beyond that. Roads are said to be the very important component of infrastructure. Although UPA government at the center has done a commendable job on the overall economy front for the nation but there is a a big question mark on the promise made by the UPA when the came to power in 2004. Our one of the most respectable PM will have to give the answer regarding the infrastructure growth in his period of governance. Although government can congratulate them self showing the kilometers of roads build during the UPA tenure but there more querulous questions to be answered by the government.

The first issue is still regarding the length of the roads build during the 4.5 yrs of UPA government. The government figure shows that the length of the roads is maximum till date in the 4.5 yrs period but they still don’t show what was the exact target and how much they have achieved. India has a poor record of implementation for any project. Can the government show that they have made any improvement in the project planning and execution. Just promising the  people to garner the votes is not what expected from scholar turned politician Mr. Manmohan Singh.

Let’s turn to the quality of the build roads. India has a lot of wheater variation across the nation from extreme cold to desert, but the appalling condition of the roads during the monsoon and after that can leave any person numb. The quality of road has always been a problem in the far flung areas of India but our Metro cities which compares to the financial and industrial hubs of the top of globe also have  the serious problem of quality of road. Turn to any metro during rainy season and immediately afterwards one can find the latest model of cars some times costing millions driving at a pace which can be as low as 10-20 km/hr. The worst thing people fear more than job stress in Mumbai is travelling. Turn to out highways which is the determining factor of our growth, one can find huge craters, long stretches of stones and mud. This leads to delay in delivery of goods and huge maintenance cost for the transport service leading to the cost escalation of the goods. It is a known fact that awarding tenders for the building of roads are far from transparent process. The government that has provided the people with RTI has done a little to make the tender process for road construction a transparent process.

It is well known fact that after the WW II and great depression USA spent huge sum of money on building infrastructure specially highways, commonly known as freeways. These freeways provided the companies for the faster mode of transporting the goods from one place to another. This infrastructure has fueled the economic growth of USA to the top most global economy. All the countries across the globe must learn the lesson that without proper infrastucture economic growth is not possible.