I am re-posting the following for Ram and Sandip Dutta to read,
before I return back to the discussions.
cm
Horrible Condition of our Roads
On the Spot
Tavleen Singh
The first convoy of official cars I encountered, driving to Pune
last week, flew saffron flags on every car of the size you normally
see atop temples. My driver spotted Bal Thakeray in one of the white
ambassadors. No sooner did we pass Mcdonald's in Panvel (a
travellers' watering hole) than I spotted another official convoy.
This time no saffron flags, only a car filled with policemen in
front of a grey Land Cruiser behind which was another car also filled
with policemen and officials. Alone in the back of the Land Cruiser
sat Sharad Pawar.
The coincidence of encountering Maharashtra's two most powerful
political leaders on the same journey made me reflect upon the role
of politics in preventing India from building the infrastructure it
so badly needs. Pawar and Thakeray would have driven down the same
road I had taken from Mumbai so they could not have failed to notice
its condition. It is no longer a road so much as a dirt track on
which you bump your way from ditch to ditch to ditch. This is after
you have driven bumper to bumper past Chembur's hideous slums where
public toilets are so clogged that people prefer to squat along the
main road beside the rotting garbage in which pigs, dogs and
barefoot children scrabble for food. Did Mr Pawar notice? Did Mr
Thakeray who has built a political career out of inciting Marathi
pride?
Mumbai is Maharashtra's proudest possession. Any talk of it being
taken out of the State Government's control causes hackles to rise
across political divisions and yet none of this State's mighty
leaders appears to have paid any attention to the most basic
requirements of social infrastructure: clean water, sanitation and
housing. Had they paid attention, then instead of slums in Chembur
there would have been affordable housing for the poor.
Instead of evil slum lords there would have been legitimate real
estate companies controlling the housing market.
As for the dreadful condition of Indian roads, please allow nobody
to fool you into believing that our roads are bad because of a
shortage of funds. They are bad mainly because they have been built
to last no longer than a single season of rain. Why? Perhaps because
the contractors who build them are well connected enough to be given
the same contract every year. You notice this more on the drive from
Mumbai to Pune than on any other road because when you get onto the
expressway you realize that India can build roads that do not
collapse with the rain.
Once you get onto the expressway you drive along the best road in
India that has remained totally intact despite this year's
unprecedented rainfall. When I asked a friend in the construction
business why this was so he said, "Simple. The Mumbai-Pune
expressway was built by responsible construction companies with
reputations to protect. Usually roads are built either by faceless
CPWD engineers or by small contractors with big connections."
So one of the flaws in the system is that political leaders hand out
major road contracts to builders who would not pre-qualify to build a
public toilet in a more sensible country. The reason for this is
that the system we devised for these things places total emphasis on
cost and none on quality. He who makes the lowest bid wins the
contract, so to cover his costs he cuts corners and uses cheap
materials and outdated technology.
He could not care less if the road he builds does not survive a
single monsoon because he has, more often than not, a connection
high up enough for him to get the contract to rebuild the road again
and again. This is true across the length and breadth of our dear
Bharat Mata which is why we are internationally renowned for having
the worst roads in the world.
I got off the expressway at Chinchwad which is one of Maharashtra's
leading industrial towns. Many of India's biggest manufacturing
companies have factories here and the municipality is believed to be
one of our richest but the road I drove down was so narrow and
gutted that I was stuck in an hour long traffic jam consisting
mainly of massive articulated lorries with names like MAERSK painted
on their sides. The eternal clash between the new 'emerging' economy
and our ancient, socialist infrastructure.
The clash would not exist if only we could get our political leaders
to understand that unless they put infrastructure (both social and
physical) at the top of their list of priorities we will still be
talking about our 'potential' to be an economic superpower fifty
years from now. If we can just build the roads and do something
about the appalling state of our cities and towns we can start
making our economic superpower dream a reality in the next five
years. These were the gloomy thoughts of your humble columnist as I
drove past a sign that warned motorists to be careful on the upcoming
bridge because its condition was 'dangerous.' If we were really on
our way to superpowerdom then instead of the sign we would have seen
a repaired bridge. I could go on and on and on.
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