Why Indian roads are always work-in-progress

On a road trip from Mumbai, the 'go-slow’ signposts are commonplace on the National Highway 48 (formerly NH4) that connects the financial capital with Bengaluru. The first 200km of Thane-Satara stretch has 16 fly-overs under construction currently, some moving at a snail’s pace, some others abandoned midway, a few pillars built by the contractor ensuring perennial traffic mess on the busy highway.

In India, building roads, flyovers and bridges is a never-ending process. Apart from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and contractors appointed by it, state public works departments and municipal corporations are busy building roads. Some roads take several years to complete and by then, it’s time to start widening them, considering India’s vehicle population growth. Then, monsoons and unusually high heavy-duty traffic take a toll on the road, some bridges and flyovers remain constantly under repair. The work-in-progress signboards, an inevitable part of Indian roads, should, in fact, read 'work-never-ends’.

Nearly a decade after the Vajpayee government executed Golden Quadrilateral project and linked Indian cities with the hinterland, India is attempting a re-run of the dream project. The road transport minister Nitin Gadkari’s recent claim that India has built 8,144 km of roads in 2016-17 and awarded another 16,800km of roads to be built, creating a ‘world record’ of sorts, should definitely cheer every Indian. He said efforts are being made to further improve the road construction target to 40km a day, up from the current 23km. This, according to Gadkari, is several times what the previous UPA government achieved when it was in power.

But as you travel along highways, what strikes you is the slow-paced road development, with the poor land acquisition, unkind court orders and cash-strapped contractors all contributing to the delay. Bankers are wary of lending to contractors even after the government conceived the new hybrid-annuity model (HAM) to minimise risks for promoters. HAM is a combination of engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) and build-operate-transfer (BOT) formats, with the government and the private companies sharing project cost in 40:60 ratio. The government also shoulders the responsibility of revenue collection.

While most of our highways are still 2-laned or 4-laned, and always try to catch up with the increasing vehicle density, countries like China go with 12-lane highways and more. For us, access-controlled, high-tech roads are still a long way off. Liquor shops are shut now, but there are stray dogs and unattended cattle all along our highways, threatening the seamless journey.

On the NH66 that connects Goa to Mangalore, cement mixers and mud excavators are busy at work, slowing your pace. Mumbai-based IRB Infrastructure, which won the mega contract to widen the 189-km stretch from Kundapur to the Goa border, has sized down several hills – either for laying the road or amassing mud needed for road widening. The Rs 2,400 crore project, with Rs 536.22 crore in viability gap funding from NHAI, was awarded in August 2012 and was to be completed in 910 days. But nearly five years later, the road work has not reached anywhere.

Like in every delayed project, users on NH66 will end up paying a heavy toll for a longer tenure to cover the cost overrun.

The writer is editor, DNA Money.
He tweets @AntoJoseph