Good Motoring
Our highways are in a mess
H. Kishie Singh

In medical terms, if your arteries are blocked, you are in serious trouble. They carry life-supporting essentials like oxygenated blood, glucose and more. They keep the body alive. In a country if the arteries are blocked, the country is in serious trouble. It is no coincidence that the main highways are referred to as arterial roads. They carry industrial produce to airports, ports and warehouses. The farmer needs good roads to bring his produce to the mandis. The business man has to get to office in time. Those going on a holiday need to get to their tourist destinations fast.

None of this is really possible in a practical way in India. The reason is simple. Our arteries are broken, potholed and waterlogged. The side railings of bridges are missing. Our country does not have an effective lifeline. The manufacturer suffers; the transporter has huge repair bills; the farmer’s fruits and vegetables rot en route. Shortage of electricity and complete lack of an arterial infrastructure are the greatest impediments to the growth of the economy.

Most of the roads are broken, potholed and waterlogged. These conditions damage vehicles and obstruct the smooth flow of traffic

A good example of possibly the worst road would be the about 20-km stretch from the Nalagarh-Baddi industrial hub to Pinjore. It would take a loaded truck about two-three hours to cover the distance, provided the road does not damage the vehicle’s suspension, or the steering assembly, or bursts its tyre. The transporter will add the cost of his repairs to the cost of freight, affecting the entire supply chain down to the consumer, who screams "inflation."

Certainly, roads are being built, but it is taking forever — as in the case of the Kalka-Panchkula highway.

You can accept delays, accept bribery and corruption as a national pass time and every citizen’s birthright. But how does one accept sheer incompetence? It is abundantly clear that we do not know how to build safe roads; building roads is not enough.

There is a bridge on the Panchkula-Kalka highway. Children going to school often try to outrun big vehicles coming downhill at a high speed. There is no way these vehicles can stop in the short distance. Why? How did this happen? Or, why was this allowed to happen? The guard railing on one side of the bridge finishes before the end of the high-speed flyover, allowing access to pedestrians and cattle. It is not a dedicated highway for motorised traffic. There should have been an underpass. The major cause of road traffic injuries (RTI) is poor road design. NH 8 in Gurgaon is a good example of bad design. The 12-lane highway, which cuts through Gurgaon, has no overbridge or pedestrian underpass for almost a 20-km stretch.

There are about 350 deaths a day due to traffic-related accidents on Indian roads, the highest in the world. It is estimated that by 2015, there could be two lakh deaths a year with 3.5 million hospitalisations. Little wonder hospitals are overflowing with patients.

The new high-speed highways are not capable of handling the new breed of fast cars being built today. The main reason is that our engineers have not realised that chalk and cheese do not mix. The highways must be dedicated to cars only. No bicycles, hand-drawn carts, bullock-carts or tractors. There must be a minimum speed limit in addition to the top limit. That is the only way you can maintain a reasonable average.

At the moment NH1 is a stop and go experience. There was a recent news item that the Centre has set aside Rs 500 crore to make highways safer. A very noble thought. But before that can happen, the government should find at least a competent and capable road designer.

Happy motoring!