Indian Roads: Forgotten Fundamentals !

Indian cities and villages are getting developed in an unprecedented manner for quite some time. The agencies involved, the money spend and the methodologies adopted  are all unprecedented.

The governments collect road tax from all who purchase new vehicles. In olden days, road taxes used to be collected on an yearly basis. Now it is being collected in one lot for the entire useful life time of the vehicle at the time of purchase of a new vehicle. The road tax component has become a major part of the cost of a new vehicle now in India.  

But yet governments (central, state and local) do not seem to have enough money to keep the roads well maintained. Apparently the system of allocation of tax money for road construction and maintenance is not so transparent. 

Roads are a clear sign of development of any well administered and governed country. Even some of the good old maharajahs of the erstwhile princely states of India too used to maintain their roads properly. One can see those centuries-old remnants of Indian roads at some places even now. Fortunately, the Indian administrators have not yet applied their brains to reconstruct at least a few of those in their own haphazard manner!

There used to be a few agencies in the past who used to be the whole sole custodians of the roads of India. They are still in existence. They are the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and the PWDs of the respective states. But apparently they all work in an invisible manner for reasons better known to them and their political bosses. Decades ago, the roads used to have some sign-cum-display boards giving some hints to the public about the officer or engineer responsible for the up keep of a particular section of the road. Now such boards are hardly visible. When they do not do their work properly, it could easily bring the people ire and they now do not want such a thing to happen! 

Now-a-days, there are additional agencies. The National Highway Authority and other works departments of the cities are all examples.

But when all these agencies are required to work together to achieve some road maintenance or construction tasks to the satisfaction of the users, it seems that such a thing is never possible for them now. Co-ordination of work and synchronization of their respective works now seems impossible. Thanks to the progress of the democratic systems of governance. In olden days, the national boundaries used to the no-mans' lands. Now the city boundaries, the state boundaries are all no-mans' lands in India. When the Indian democracy works truly as a federal system (authorities and responsibilities vested with many), the misfortunes of the people enhance many fold. Transparency and accountability also seem to be with none!

Every one has some excuse for not delivering what the people want. If the people's monies are pilfered, that was simply the result of the chaos that inherently developed within the complex system of governance. The illogical watch dog agencies added further complications to the already weak governance and administration in India in general. The roads too got affected adversely in this mess, just as many others.

The conventional democratic system of India run by seasoned political professionals and family politicians are proving their ineffectiveness in providing a proper administration and management of the public wealth of the country. The people of India are slowly realizing the folly of depending on these people for effective leadership and public service administration. 

As it stands today, the Indian roads are not a safe bet for any one to travel. Any thing can happen. But it could be a thrill for the adventure minded to travel in the Indian roads now. 

You try to travel some hundreds of kilometers in the Indian roads using the confidence given by Google maps and your new foreign designed Car or SUV, you would soon realize and repent over your foolishness, unless you are really a brave adventurist.

You speed off in a national high way which you felt as really of international standard when you started off. Before you could cover just about 5-10 km you have to come to a halt and be in the line to pay off handsomely to the private toll tax collectors. Paying for the good facility that the private investor had been allowed to create as an alternative to the public road facility may not be felt as a big problem. That is the way it happens in the capitalist countries like the USA. That is considered as an alternate way for faster economic growth. But remember, it is an alternative and not the sole and only choice!

In India, this aspect is seriously ignored. The toll roads created here and there are the only choice and not an alternative for those who are willing to pay some money extra for some better facility.  In India, the elected representatives of the people seem to forget about the common people and allowed a situation wherein the toll highways are the only alternative for travel in some stretches of the national highways. The existing road that had been there for decades have been handed over to the private investor in patches of few kilometers who in turn re-carpet it slightly better and collect huge sums from every one for decades. In some places, the private investor invested a few crores and recovered his whole invested money within months besides ensuring a potential for collecting thousands of crores of rupees in future with the tacit approval of the people's representatives of the democratic governments!

There is no common policy to determine the toll taxes either. It is simply as per the whimsical formulas of the concerned authorities. In some places, there are stretches of toll highways having lengths to the order of 200-300 km taking toll tax of just Rs.50 or Rs.80 for a motor car while there are also stretches of highways with lengths of just 15-20 km taking the same amounts. I remember paying nearly Rs.2000/- for my own car journey through the National Highways from Raipur-Nagpur-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Chennai-Vizag-Raipur. That was a couple of years ago, when the roads were just getting renovated. The toll could be much more now. Imagine the tolls the heavy truckers have to shell out ! Toll tax may not be a bad idea per se. But there has to be some transparency and justifiable policies which are digestible to the people at large!

A visionary leader of modern India very rightly declared the need for good roads in India and tried to propagate some thing called the 'golden triangle' concept of national highways. It was indeed a remarkable vision. But even after a decade it is an unfinished agenda. That is the efficiency of the existing subordinate bureaucracy and technocracy of the Indian federation to convert a leader's vision to action! Apparently, the Indian political leadership lacks the ability to create dynamism to the existing bureaucratic executive system for any appreciable actions recognized by the people as something good. I am not ignoring the good works that keep happening here and there in India. But on the whole, there are much things desired getting seriously affected  and the system lethargy is too visible for the common citizens to just ignore!

In many cities, some of the elected governments were so daring that they give permissions to roads running right through some populated cities to be converted as toll roads. They had even forced the citizens living in one part of the city going to the other part and returning to pay every time. Some of the democratic people's representatives of India were so daring that they simply did not care for the people's ire.

It is another thing that the people of India used their democratic power to over throw such fellows. But the fellows have any way made great fortunes in this game!

The Indian roads in some cities have fantastic road signs with glittering letters erected across the roads at some remarkable heights. It is indeed a glittering view for the visitors, but not for the drivers who want to take some lead from those for the right directions. On the other hand, on the highways of India, you do not find any such sign boards even where there is a junction or a crossing. Many drivers travelling in the nights on these high ways are bound to travel to some other direction covering scores of kilometers before they realize their mistakes!

The high ways in some parts of the country do not have any motels or resting places. Some corporate big wigs had made very good facilities in the past only to be dismantled later due to the un-supportive attitudes of the governments concerned or their greedy subordinate authorities. Another example of the people's representatives failing to deliver either for India's economic growth or infrastructural facilities or making the inherent administrative organizations to function under cohesive or transparent policies!

If you travel in the Indian highways making good use of the good horse power of your modern vehicle and the road surface you thought as apparently good and wide, there is a likely danger of you suddenly driving your vehicle in to some thing you never ever imagined to exist there. It could be a ditch or a sudden disappearance of the good road even! Indian road engineers apparently do not visit the road construction sites when the sites are far away from the usual travel routes of their political bosses. Such areas are purely left to the supervisors of the contractors. And why should the latter spend some extra money to place the necessary road signs at appropriate places to give warning to the drivers? The Indian law enforcers may chase the driver and the owner of the vehicle when a road accident takes place and are too efficient to put them in their lock-ups. But I have not yet come across the news of a case when some road contractor or road engineer of the government getting arrested for lapses in the roads leading to accidents! On the other hand, there are umpteen cases in India, where the authorities chasing and arresting some remotely connected persons holding similar responsibilities when accidents take place in some factories, cinema halls, hospitals, and the like! Road and Railway authorities in India are the fortunate ones in this regard!

I have written just some fundamental aspects concerning governance and administration with regard to the creation and management of just one essential infrastructure of the country responsible for the overall economic growth and prosperity. Apparently, our administrators and political leaderships seem to forget some fundamental aspects. That is the fundamental of people first. If that is ignored, the people might some day rise to set things right.

This is what the conventional political players seem to forget. This is what the government servants seem to forget. When they forget people, they are bound to become arrogant. And when they keep showing their arrogance and disregard to the aam aadmi (common people) movements like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would rise to make those arrogance to humility.

Am I telling some thing wrong ? 

Correct me if I am.

Uttarakhand Flood of 16th June 2013 : Would Good Engineering Practices Have Reduced the Losses ?

When the news of the heavy rains and the subsequent land slide calamities that rocked India, especially the north Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh a couple of days ago, with the horror stories still pouring in, some memories of my experiences in those areas more than three decades ago flashed in my mind. Thousands are now believed to be either dead or missing in this worst natural disaster in the recent times. And this tragedy is likely to cause lingering pains to thousands of families across India crying and searching for their near and dear ones. 

As a quick response of responsibility, Google has started a special service for locating and reporting the details of the missing persons -you may click this Person Finder link for more details: 2013 Uttrakhand Floods. Against this backdrop I find it most unfortunate to observe the much publicized Prime Minister's National Relief Fund Donate Online website  a non-functional one with invalid server certificate,  today ! 

Now coming back to my memories. The period was late in the Nineteen Seventies when I was a post graduate chemical engineering student at Roorkee University, the successor of the first engineering college that started functioning any where in the British Commonwealth regions under the British empire way back in 1853 as Thomason College of Civil Engineering  which later got rechristened as the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

Being passed my degree in chemical engineering from the only college that offered that stream of study in the south Indian state of Kerala in those days, the Government Engineering College, Trichur, there was no reason for me to go to the plains of north west India for further studies. I could have done that elsewhere much conveniently. But my decision to try Roorkee was in a way purposeful. Two years at Roorkee would give me enough opportunity to explore some of the mountainous Himalayan terrains of North India.

Those were some of the memorable days of my life. There were a few adventure loving friends. Mr Ujjagger Singh Kooner pursuing his ME in Mechanical Engineering and Mr Donn Treese from USA pursuing his masters in Architectural Engineering were my hostel mates in Jawahar Bhawan who used to be my adventure and sight seeing companions on many occasions. The Himalayan Explorer's Club of the University also provided much help for me to understand the problems of life in the mountain terrains of Tehri Garhwal  and adjoining regions situated then in undivided Uttar Pradesh State and now in Uttarakhand State. A week's training in ice craft and mountaineering in Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi was a good experience which I still cherish.

These Himalayan ranges are the sources of streams that make up the great north Indian rivers such as the Ganga (River Ganges)  and its main tributory the Yamuna that make the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar fertile. Being a nation of nearly a billion people following Hinduism, it not a surprise that the Himalayan ranges have many revered Hindu shrines and worship places where a devote Hindu would like to visit as a pilgrim. The Ganga water is holy and the source of the Ganga (Gangotri)  and Yamuna (Yamunotri) are holy places making them most desired locations in the Uttarakhand regions of the Himalayas for the religious tourists. Besides the entire routes to these places in the mountains offer awesome treat to nature lovers and adventurists alike. Visit of people to these places has been a regular affair for decades. While few hundred people visited these places every year a couple of decades before, perhaps millions visit now. Better roads and affordability of good vehicles and mushrooming of hundreds of guest houses along the valleys and hill slopes have made such a transformation.

During the time of my visit to these places in the late Seventies, the roads connecting Uttarkashi , Harsil, Rudraprayag  and Kedarnath were broken at many places due to land slides. I remember trekking for kilometers and taking some help from the Indian paramilitary personnel from ITBP, BSF, etc to cover some distances in the motor-able patches of the roads on their vehicles. I had seen the difficult work of the BRO in repairing the difficult mountain roads that had caved in due to landslides at many places. Travelling in those roads and trails running by the slopes of the mountains make one feel highly vulnerable to various kinds of potential dangers like falling stones, fall, etc., etc. If one gets physically incapacitated by any means, an evacuation to a safer place would not be easy if the roads become cut or isolated due to landslides or caving ins. . Helicopters of the military organizations would be the only solution in such a situation. I had faced such a situation of helplessness when I caught a mild fever while I was on trek beyond Uttarkashi. My stamina all of a sudden got drained out that I was incapable of trekking any more ! Fortunately, some friendly paramilitary men helped me by giving shelter, medicine and transport when it was needed the most !

While I visited these places, the travelers and visitors in these places were much less as compared to the situation now. But I can visualize the horror if you get stranded in any of these places. I remember getting stranded in a mountain village in Himachal Pradesh north east of Shimla  during a pleasant season when the road connection got suddenly broken on another occasion during that time when me and my American friend Donn ventured in to a personal adventure trip. We had to walk nearly 50 km taking two days to get the public transport to Shimla ! Fortunately, the weather was nice and we had my uncle who worked there in the Public Works Department as our guide. Imagine the horror in a situation when the weather is hostile and you are left to fetch for yourself !

But the world has moved much ahead in the last three decades. The roads of Uttarakhand has become a bit wider perhaps to accommodate more vehicles. But, regrettably nothing more to prevent those roads from getting damaged extensively due to floods, earthquakes or landslides has been implemented. There could have been alternate routes at many places to give the people some option when some long stretches of road become isolated. The building constructions along the river side and the slopes could have been with better and safe engineering designs. There could have been more helicopter landing pads. The unstable mountain slopes could have been strengthened with appropriate landslide prevention methods.

When we talk about landslide prevention methods, it is now common knowledge that there are many methods the engineering fraternity around the globe practice and implement. For example see this wikipedia article on landslide mitigation .

Of these, the most important in my opinion, is the provision of good water drainage systems for both surface water as well as sub soil water. In the roads in India, this one aspect is the most neglected one with improvisation doing the major role than well- thought- about engineering designs. An unstable soil surface , such as the sloppy terrains of Uttarakhand, would slide out when rain water seeps in and accumulate below the surface. There are many ways to stabilize those slopes along the roads and below the roads and to strengthen those roads from total damage as was seen this time. The towns in the valleys and ravines also could have been saved to a greater extent, had some authorities thought of such eventualities with the help of engineering experts well in advance.

Perhaps for reasons well known to them, the authorities found it convenient to keep these roads in a perpetual state of damage and damage mitigation state rather than adopting sound engineering practices to build safe and stabilized roads and infrastructure. I am not sure !

Landslides due to floods, earthquakes and rains are not something new to Uttarakhand. But hopefully, this kind of a tragedy could have been mitigated of its severity with the adoption of sound engineering practices.

Let us hope the authorities would consider it something important to implement in the future !

My heartfelt sympathies with all those affected families and persons!


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link that gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Enhance Your Awareness Before You Buy Flashy Homes and Flats from Indian Real Estate Developers !

Cities grow in population due to higher job opportunities which causes movement of people from the rural and other areas of lower opportunities. Heavy influx of population further improves business opportunities which in turn propels job opportunities. If the infrastructure also grows rapid urbanization of the the city takes place.

In India such a thing has been happening. India has been witnessing massive urbanization in the recent times.

Personally, I am not in favour of massive urbanization. No doubt, massive urbanization might bring quick money and opportunities to a few for some time. But on the overall, it causes unequal development and inequality. The rural areas are likely to become more and more neglected and vulnerable with regard to law and order and security aspects.

The neglect in the rural areas with regard to law and order and infrastructure has been the sole factor for those affluent class from the villages shift their residences to the cities. More and more rich villagers of India are now are selling off their village properties and buying homes in the cities.

The available space in and around cities are diminishing due to growth of residential and commercial properties in the cities. Peripheral development and suburban growth is slow due to slow pace of growth in suburban infrastructure.

Private developers and colonizers are better placed to acquire land in the towns and cities because they know the process of identifying and buying the land better than the common people. This in turn causes all land to be in the indirect control of such people and their agents. The land prices in India has sky rocketed due to this and it is an all India phenomena now. The state governments of India help them in this process by keeping the land records and transaction processes cumbersome and unaffordable to the common people.

So it is indeed a difficult thing for any one to buy a piece of land and construct a home in any city or its suburbs in India, unless he has abundant patience and time.

The builder and developer come to the rescue of the common man in such a scenario.

They have indeed made the property acquisition process very simple for the common people. Just sign a few papers and documents here and there as advised by the property developer and agree to pay the money, the common man can now own a house or a property in the cities of India. But for this simplicity of process, he has to pay a price through his nose and face some good musics later on !

The property price keep rising geometrically. At least that is the inference you get if you watch and observe the property market. A residential flat that is offered for sale in a multi storied apartment complex at a price of say Rs.3000/- per square feet during its launch would become double or treble in just two three years time by the time the property becomes fully sold out. Whether such a thing actually happens or not, that is the general public impression.

So on the overall population influx to the cities of India is going to continue and there will always be people who want to own a property in the cities by adopting the easy route of acquisitions.

But living in a row house or a flat is different from living in an independent self contained house. Both have its own advantages and disadvantages.

The sole big advantage is the simplicity of becoming the owner of the house with a decent look and finish without taking much physical trouble and efforts. The second advantage is the satisfaction that your property value is rising day after day, regardless of the fact that  you ever encash it or not !

But in this process many people initially forget the hard realities of living in a colony.

If you are deciding to purchase a home from a colonizer or property developer, it is better for you to keep the following things also in mind:

1. Remember that the residential colony or a multi storied building that a developer develops requires constant and efficient maintenance and administration on a long term basis. The colonizer's responsibility expires when all his units are sold out. As per the existing laws, the colonizer cannot maintain the complex for ever. He has to hand over the administration of the complex to an association of the owners and hence forth it will be the sole responsibility of the owners' association to efficiently manage the affairs of the maintenance of the complex as built by the developers. So, it is essential that the owners know in depth about their own responsibilities in this. If they do not have good people who know about managing these affairs voluntarily and efficiently, they are going to face many kinds of problems in the future.

2. The most important functions of management of the property complex are :

a. Managing the security of the complex by appointing reliable and efficient security personnel either appointing their own personnel or hiring from reliable security agencies. Either of these functions are not so easy. It requires good man-management and negotiation skills from the part of the representatives of the owners' association. It is not always necessary that the owners themselves possess these skills or have time to devote for this. 

b. The complex need personnel for cleaning the general areas on a regular basis. There should be some one to check and supervise their activities.

c. The individual residential units generate solid wastes of all kinds and these need to be regularly collected and disposed. One of the biggest issues not addressed by the colony developers is this. It is normally assumed that the ultimate refuse disposal is the responsibility of the municipal authorities. The city governments normally charges hefty development fee from the developers before they give the permission for building their complex. However, it so happens that the system of refuse collection and disposal normally does not come into reliable operation so easily. It is advisable that the owners know about this before they decide to buy the property. They should also discuss this aspect with the colonizer in detail and satisfy themselves.

d. Electricity is an important aspect. It is better that the owner knows about the scheme of electric supply in the complex. It is also important that all the drawings and schemes of the electrical system should be taken over by the owners association from the builder while the builder hands over his responsibility to the owners association. It is better for the association to check the details of all these by some competent professional engineer. Other wise, they might face problems of later day maintenance if some trouble develops. The builders normally declares power back ups through generators. It is better to know how the generators are connected and their safe connection schemes to the main power supply. It is also important to identify the fuel supplies, storage, etc and their location safety and security.

e. Water supply is very important. It is important to know from where the water is sourced for the complex. In the beginning, the water to the complex might be from temporary municipal connections or from bore wells. While the complex is not occupied fully, such water supply may not create any problems to the initial residents. However, when the complex becomes fully occupied, the water supply becomes a big problem if the sources are not properly planned and executed. It is better to know whether the builder has approvals from the municipal authorities for full water supply and how the same would be implemented. It is also better to know the water supply scheme of the complex and get it checked by a competent engineer. In multistory buildings it is necessary to know the number of pumps, tanks, their capacities and the scheme of water supply to the individual units. Remember, if the water supply fails, no one can live in a multi storied apartment !

f. Waste water disposal is equally important. How is the sanitation of the building planned and executed ? What happens if the sanitary pipes get chocked or clogged ? Who will attend the problem ? Are there competent plumbers who know about the scheme and systems available in the vicinity whose services could be sought in case of a problem ? What is the capacity and life of the septic tanks ? Where is the waste waters from the complex connected to for ultimate disposal? What are the sewerage systems for rain water disposal and harvesting ?

g. In multi storied complexes lifts are the life lines. Remember that the lifts are also complex electro-mechanical devices which needs expert supervision and maintenance on a regular basis. While the lifts are taken over from the builder, all their relevant information and safety certification also must be obtained. It is always advisable that the lifts are operated only under the supervision of a lift operator. Automatic lifts are prone to life threatening accidents due to ignorance of the users. It is always better to entrust the lifts to be entrusted with some lift company on annual maintenance contract (AMC) basis.

h. While you live in your own independent house, its maintenance is perhaps fully in your control. But when it is a residential complex, you have to collectively ensure it and incur costs towards it. It is your collective responsibility to earmark a regular monthly sum for the said purpose and pay it to your association.

i. The better and efficient upkeep of your complex ultimately depends on the effectiveness of your representatives of your association who are entrusted with the voluntary task of managing the show. If it goes in to wrong hands, it will be managed wrongly and ineffectively and perhaps it will also costs you more. But this function is a democratic process and it is quite likely that you get bad representatives now and then who could make your life miserable. But that is inevitable. The more you become disassociated from your association, the more such problems you are likely to face.

j. Another thing in the privately developed residential complexes are the movement and parking space constraints. While some of the developers provide ample space, others are not so. Initially when the complexes are not occupied fully, the space appears sufficient. But as the occupancy gets to its full, the parking and movement really become a problem. It is better to check the details of these initially itself.

k. High rise buildings need to be checked with respect to their fire safety and exit arrangements. Some buildings have complex layouts which are difficult for the residents to understand. The free movement areas in the building, common to all, should be carefully studied before taking a decision to buy a unit in it.

l. There should be common facilities like meeting halls, office rooms and staff convenience facilities in the complex, in addition to other welfare and recreation facilities.

m. If recreation facilities like swimming pool etc are provided, it should be known how those will be maintained and the recurring costs for maintaining those.

n. It should be better to know the total recurring costs on a monthly basis for your unit and the likely and the maximum escalation in these. It is also advisable to insist to know the total maintenance costs for the complex as worked out by the developer and the average impact of that for every flat or house owner. Such information could be useful to benchmark the costs of running the complex by the owners association at a later day.

It is better that you are aware of all these before hand and be prepared for such problems.

It is quite possible that in the future our governments may evolve better statutes that would help to resolve these issues.

Governments may amend the present laws for allowing either the builders or other expert professional companies who could be entrusted to carry out the maintenance of the complexes on behalf of the residents and the owners on a long term basis.


[Please do take some time to come back and read my other blogs as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my Blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Infrastructure in India : Talking Much and Doing Nothing !

Perhaps Atal Bihari Bajpayee was one such Prime Minister of India who openly admitted to the poor state of infrastructure in India and launched the visionary 'Golden Triangle Highway Project of India' with much fanfare.

Prior to that the young PM Rajiv Gandhi initiated the dream project named the 'Ganga Action Plan' to clean the River Ganga from pollution.

Unfortunately and most regrettably, it appears that the country has failed miserably in fulfilling even the dream projects announced by the top most political authority. 

It appears to the common man that the political authorities are only interested in gaining some cheap popularity by announcing mega projects and not at all interested in seeing that what they announce gets materialized ever !

On the other hand, starting from a similar back ground a quarter century ago, the neighbouring country China has progressed enviously as far as infrastructural development is concerned. It has become the number one in the world in many things during this period and is progressing forward surpassing even the glorious developed nations of the past.

Just a couple of days ago, I wanted to visit Bhilai, the steel city very near to Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh state, which is just a bit over 600 kilometers away from my present city of residence, Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand.

The need was an urgent one and I had to spend hours together to formulate my plans to make the trip.

Both these cities, incidentally come under the steel corridor of India with the largest movement materials, both finished and unfinished. Both have airports and major railways stations. They are located on the so called trunk routes of India.

Yet there are no direct flights nor daily running trains with comfortable class of accommodation. The train journey takes hardly 8 hours provided there is a train with the accommodation and the reservation. Unfortunately there is none even after this country becoming an independent nation more than half a century ago. Incidentally the major railway infrastructure as existing are all developed by the British raj whom the Indians curse perpetually for their misrule !

So there was no choice for me except to make the travel to and fro by road which are prominently marked on the maps as national high ways.

If you search the google options you may find these two cities 'beautifully' connected by a number of roads most of them marked NH (the short name for National Highways !). Google may even suggest that you can perhaps make the trip by car within about 9 to 10 hours by travelling through a combination of NHs.

Believing google, I ventured to make the travel by an SUV and finished the up journey in about 16 hours. Trying a better combination of NH for the return journey using the prestigious NH-6, my luck was more miserable. It took me 22 hours ! Remember, the total time spend for taking some rest for each of the journey was not more than 2 hours ! Had the roads be of any reasonable standard, I could have accomplished my travel easily as suggested by Google ! But then Google doesnot maintain the Indian roads !

[Incidentally, this site Map my India is more practical. They had assessed the road conditions much more practically and predicted the time of travel at about 17 hours!]

These National Highways of India are only in the maps and physically they are just some barren spaces with some signs of paving by asphalt or concrete some time earlier for most of the stretches. These NHs of India pass through some regions which are geographically endowed with good natural beauty and not overcrowded. Perhaps these green regions actually showcase the natural abundance of India ! Had I been responsible for the administration of these highways, I would have seen that these highways are maintained properly always to make my fellow citizen take pride in the country. But thats' only a dream !

But I keep wondering. How can those fellows, who are entrusted with the upkeep of these National Highways which ought to be the symbols of pride for all Indians, can ever disregard their responsibilities to such an extent that they keep these highways a national disgrace ?

There are some more things I observed about these so-called national infrastructure roads called national highways which are obviously maintained so shabbily as national disgraces.

In most places, there are no sign boards. Even if they are there, they do not follow any standards. Especially of importance is the sign boards at the junctions of two or more roads. Sign boards to give proper direction to the motorists are practically absent. If you think that the GPRS navigation will help you, perhaps it could, provided the signals reach you properly. Again do not expect, the local people would be in a position to guide you always. If you take the wrong route, it could turn out to be hundreds of kilometers of extra travel. There are chances of you getting even totally lost for hours.

I noticed some sign boards that declare the same road differently with different NH numbering. Enough for a motorist who travel using the maps to get confused and lost !

If your car develops a snag, it could be the worst situation. There are no known help in the near vicinity. Neither are there any highway patrols who are entrusted to help the motorists. That is again the Indian way of managing things in this context.

I was feeling empathetic to those hundreds of drivers who drive their heavily loaded trucks through these routes, day in and day out, helping the rest of India with the supplies. Their vehicles are always at the risk of going out of balance in these poorly maintained national highways of India. They are also at the risk of untimely breakdowns due to the uneven road surfaces for such long stretches in hundreds of kilometers. Imagine the truck owners spending such huge sums for their vehicles whose life span gets shortened by a few years just because of these roads! Imagine the more fuel they spend on the roads for transporting the goods as the roads are not energy efficient !

The roads are no private property in India. The state and central governments are the sole custodians and managers of the roads. I need not to stress then who is to be blamed for this national shame.

A few decades ago, I remember the Indian roads in a much better condition than now. There were not toll tax collectors at every 15-20 kilometers as the road managers of India has made it to happen in some of the trunk routes now.

The road maintenance was entrusted to the Public Works Department (PWD) of either the state or the central governments. The roads prominently displayed the concerned PWD officer who was in charge of the particular section of the road concerned. At least the people could have known the fellow actually responsible for maintaining that part of the road. If you travel by road, you could see hundreds of workers keep working to maintain the roads. The PWD authorities kept surveying the road conditions regularly and kept doing things on a war footing that no part of the road is in such a shamefully shabby situation.

I do not know what has happened to the Indian PWD now. I do not have any idea about the authority or authorities who are responsible for maintaining the roads and NHs of India now.

The governments keep taxing the new vehicles substantially in the name of road tax. Then some short segments of  roads with heavy traffic are auctioned for maintenance by private players who are allowed to tax the vehicles for decades making much more money than they had spend in making and maintaining those roads. It is a disgrace that the authorities have allowed such privatisation of roads in some of the roads, that too in small patches that pass through the cities, just as the portion of NH-6 which passes through the city of Bhilai forcing even the local populace to pay on a daily basis to use these roads for routine commuting.

Regrettably, Indians have long forgotten to protest. Because they know that their protests no longer carry any weights. They also do not know with whom they should make their complaints or register their protests. The ruling political parties and the opposition political parties are all at par in understanding or not understanding the woes of the people. Neither they, nor those at important positions seem to be ignorant on fixing the responsibility for such sad state of affairs.

Then comes the so-called fourth estate of democracy, the media. In India, the major part of media space and time is devoted to reports of mudslinging and other mundane things not of any value to the people or the country. They prefer to do little research and provide any concrete suggestions. Media also fail miserably in highlighting the actual cause of failure of the governmental systems. They do not feel it comfortable to get to the root cause of the problems by actual pondering about an issue of national importance.

Had they been responsible, their space and time would have been filled with the stories of success, failures and other related matters concerning various developmental aspects of the country including such major issues such as about the roads and highways. There would have been regular media follow ups on such issues. Unfortunately the noted journalists of the country are paid for being in the company of noted politicians always to report and make commentaries on what they want to utter publicly, even when their private opinions could be just the opposite. I found people no more are interested in reading or listening to these stereotyped media reports. Unless the media takes up things responsibly, their days in the future might be numbered !

Are we a nation of wide mouth talkers with absolutely no regard to what we talk?

Are we a nation not interested in actions any more ?

Is it possible to create roads, bridges and other major infrastructure only by issuing plans and policies and doing nothing for their implementation?

Will it be possible to implement any project in time when experienced people are in short supply to do such activities?

Would it be possible to develop people of the right experience and expertise when there are long spells of non-activity ?

Would it be possible to do all these things just by wishful thinking without actual planning and plan implementation ?

Incidentally, I read in the news papers that the Bihar government has realized that their projects are not getting shape because they do not have experienced engineers to make the project proposals properly, including the basic engineering.

Similarly the Jharkhand government has an acute shortage of experienced clerical staff to make the reports typed in order and maintain the files properly.

If that is so, the situation in other states would be no different.

What has happened to all our responsible departments like the PWD and their experienced engineers?

Who butchered those departments ? Who butchered the expertize of India that the independent India kept acquiring all those initial years ?

Any answers ?

Any suggestions ?