Raving Rambling

To copy Jane Austen, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that Indian roads are filled with uneducated, idiotic drivers. Adding to our daily aggravation are the pothole marred roads that cause considerable damage to both man and machine. But I think that’s the least of our problems. Indian roads are just not built for safety. There are exceptions of course – various patches that together make up the Golden Quadrilateral project, the Palm Beach road in Navi Mumbai, and probably some of the newer expressways. But even these need to go a long way before meeting any international or for that matter even domestic safety benchmarks. True, I haven’t travelled across the length and breadth of the country to validate this. But going by my experience of the states I have travelled through and also my basic understanding of the psyche of those in charge of such matter, we can safely assume that things are not likely to be any better. Design in terms of architecture and flow is the key issu...

Privatization in India became a reality only in the early 90s. the current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then PM Narsimha Rao played a crucial role in setting the ball rolling towards freeing India from the License Raj regime. And in hindsight it has paid rich dividends. The measures that were then taken by the incumbent congress government have played a huge role in driving India towards the economic prosperity we are witnessing today. However, there is a huge debate going on in parliament as well as in government and academic circles and also in the media about the advisability of pushing for privatization of other government held industries. While privatization would definitely fill the governments coffers in the short run what would be the long-term implications of such a move. Would it be akin to killing the hen that laid the golden eggs or would it have political ramifications in terms of reduced employment opportunities and the like. We will try and explore ...

When the Palm Beach Road first came up in Navi Mumbai a decade back we thought India had finally arrived. Here was a road that was attempting to meet international standards. The Bombay Pune expressway too added to this confidence. Even if we didn’t expect any dramatic overnight changes, we expected our highways and byways to improve on an incremental basis. The erstwhile PM Vajpayee’s dream Golden Quadrilateral project, that now connects most of India’s metros, kept this hope alive.  Turbhe - Airoli Highway But now whenever I use the relatively new Turbhe to Airoli highway I wonder what the architects and engineers of this project were thinking when they designed this road. When I first came across this route, I was quite delighted with the idea of a road that would allow me the joy of effortless, pothole free and smooth drive for at least 15 Kms. When the roadwork finally was completed, and I got the opportunity to use the road I was thoroughly disappointed. It is pothole...