I seem to have missed the hurricane that hit our Capital and destroyed all the roads. After all, surely it couldn’t have been the annual monsoon rains, which have been largely as expected, that have caused most of the roads in the Capital to resemble a lunar landscape.
As Beijing wows the world with an Olympics the likes of which the world has never seen before, the roads in Delhi crumble to resemble those found on Mars – not that Mars has roads of course, which is exactly the point. Perhaps we ought to leave our cars at home and request NASA to ship us a few of their Mars Exploration Rover’s that have been engineered to traverse this type of terrain.
But jokes apart, let’s take a brief look at the impact that’s caused by traffic slowing to a crawl or even stopping completely, which is an all-day, everyday occurrence because of the state of our roads. Here are a few proven and, in fact, obvious facts – road congestion leads to a reduction in productivity that results in reduced regional economic health. Needless to say, Delhi is a major economic hub, and therefore greatly impacts the economic health of the country as a whole. In this day and age when time is money, this has a massive impact at the macro level.
Environmentally, it means more vehicles idling in traffic and increased air pollution. It also means an enormous waste of fuel at a time when the price of crude is exorbitant. This, in turn, means that the exchequer, which subsidizes the price of fuel, is wasting public money as a result of the maintenance of our roads, or lack thereof.
The economic and environmental impact apart, there’s also a human impact that’s felt everyday. Bad roads and congestion lead to aggravation and road rage. On a much more critical level, it can also mean the difference between life and death since emergency vehicles suffer the consequences as much as anyone else. I saw an ambulance bouncing around on one of the many broken roads the other day – suffice to say, it didn’t seem like an ideal scenario in which to stabilize a patient.
On a vehicle front, it means that the only cars suited to these roads are SUVs like the Scorpio pictured here. The roads not only have an impact on suspension components but the state of the vehicle as a whole.
And whereas the government is undertaking various projects such as the Metro to improve infrastructure and reduce congestion, what we’re taking about here isn’t long term solutions, but simply making the most of what we already have by properly maintaining our existing roads. After all, how hard can it be? You don’t see the privately run DND that connects Delhi and Noida caving in because of the monsoon.
What it points to, unfortunately, is a larger issue – incompetence and/or corruption among our civic bodies. And frankly, I don’t know which is worse.
