I was reading news item on TOI in the afternoon and came across one sad news. A young BBA student (22 year old) died unattended after being hit by a speeding car in one of the most apathetic cities of the world "New Delhi". It is so unfortunate that so many people loose their life and meet their moment of death in such miserable and agonizing way. This happened on the eve of his sister's wedding. I can not imagine the pain his parents must have felt.
In India, 1.4 Lakh people die every year in road accident. More than 5 Lakh people are left handicapped with their limbs or some body part sliced off the body. It is so unfortunate that despite 75 years of our independence, we have not been able to build proper roads. Hardly 2% of the roads are national highways. And this 2% carry nearly 40% of traffic volume. Driving in India is not at all fun. It is pain.
The need of hour is to focus on 4 E's. The first one is engineering of roads. Most of our roads are so poorly designed that even the highways develop foot deep holes after one rainy season. The dracula of corruption sucks all the money provided for road development. Be it private organization or public entity, corruption has hit both of them alike. At national level we do not even have proper national highway development authority. I remember, once I was in Kanpur. I went to appear for UP-PSC examination. I was late, the city hotels were literally full with aspirants so there were no free rooms. I searched in dozens of hotels but all were full. Somehow I managed to find a room but it was too costly. I thought of sharing it with some one. I spotted two other boys roaming around looking like aspirants. I approached them, asked them if they are also hunting for rooms. They agreed to share with me. Anyway, story begins. One guy was nephew of UP minister. He told me about various methods of corruption in official tenders. He explained how a 3000 crore sum of money allocated for road building was siphoned off by fraud organizations without even laying single brick on the road. Official inspection declared that road was built but due to heavy rains and flood situation, it was destroyed in the next season.
Roads are considered the first step in bringing development to any region. Today most of Indian infrastructure problem starts with lack of roads. The lack of backward-forward connectivity results in city becoming island of development while village hinterland turns into ripening ground for naxalism. Sharat Joshi of Shetkari Sanghatan has explained this in his thesis of India and Bharat. Whether it is problem of inaccessibility of colleges or it is problem of overburdening of railways, the root cause is lack of roads. Therefore, It would be prudent for administration to focus on roads if they are serious about projects like Make in India etc. Modi is visionary in this regard. He understand most of these grass root problems but somehow he has failed to follow the right steps despite knowing the solution. One, he has put one of the most corrupt minister Shri Shri Gadkari as Transport minister. And adding salt to injury, Modi is talking of digital roads when we do not even have proper physical roads.
My nephew is no more. :( :( :( :( :(
Will write later.
In India, 1.4 Lakh people die every year in road accident. More than 5 Lakh people are left handicapped with their limbs or some body part sliced off the body. It is so unfortunate that despite 75 years of our independence, we have not been able to build proper roads. Hardly 2% of the roads are national highways. And this 2% carry nearly 40% of traffic volume. Driving in India is not at all fun. It is pain.
The need of hour is to focus on 4 E's. The first one is engineering of roads. Most of our roads are so poorly designed that even the highways develop foot deep holes after one rainy season. The dracula of corruption sucks all the money provided for road development. Be it private organization or public entity, corruption has hit both of them alike. At national level we do not even have proper national highway development authority. I remember, once I was in Kanpur. I went to appear for UP-PSC examination. I was late, the city hotels were literally full with aspirants so there were no free rooms. I searched in dozens of hotels but all were full. Somehow I managed to find a room but it was too costly. I thought of sharing it with some one. I spotted two other boys roaming around looking like aspirants. I approached them, asked them if they are also hunting for rooms. They agreed to share with me. Anyway, story begins. One guy was nephew of UP minister. He told me about various methods of corruption in official tenders. He explained how a 3000 crore sum of money allocated for road building was siphoned off by fraud organizations without even laying single brick on the road. Official inspection declared that road was built but due to heavy rains and flood situation, it was destroyed in the next season.
Roads are considered the first step in bringing development to any region. Today most of Indian infrastructure problem starts with lack of roads. The lack of backward-forward connectivity results in city becoming island of development while village hinterland turns into ripening ground for naxalism. Sharat Joshi of Shetkari Sanghatan has explained this in his thesis of India and Bharat. Whether it is problem of inaccessibility of colleges or it is problem of overburdening of railways, the root cause is lack of roads. Therefore, It would be prudent for administration to focus on roads if they are serious about projects like Make in India etc. Modi is visionary in this regard. He understand most of these grass root problems but somehow he has failed to follow the right steps despite knowing the solution. One, he has put one of the most corrupt minister Shri Shri Gadkari as Transport minister. And adding salt to injury, Modi is talking of digital roads when we do not even have proper physical roads.
My nephew is no more. :( :( :( :( :(
Will write later.
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