VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
The job of political reporters
covering elections 2014 is now over. Along with the rest of the country, they
too are waiting for the magic inside the Electronic Voting Machines to come out
with all its magnificence on May 16, the day of counting.
Of course, political reporters
are never out of business in a country as vast as ours where Lok Sabha
elections would be followed by Assembly elections one after the other. But
after the fate of the candidates and parties have been sealed, there is nothing
much to say or analyse till the genie comes out of the small machines called
EVMs.
Covering the polls, talking to
people, learning about their life and political preferences and travelling in
this country where the topography and climate of one place differs from the
other every few kilometre, is an experience in itself something to cherish. Despite
the relative prosperity in the northern States, there was something in common
between them — bad condition of the National Highways. Punjab
is an exception, as the highways are well-maintained except the NH-1,
connecting Panipat to Amritsar
which has been under construction since time immemorial and the project to
convert it into six lanes is only on paper. But in Punjab ,
the toll rates are high.
Despite paying all kinds of taxes
when you purchase a new vehicle, including road tax, you have to pay every time
you hit the highways in Punjab and this indeed is quite
steep. Even in Haryana, there have been several agitations on high toll charges
forcing the Government to have a rethink on it policy, particularly in Rohtak.
I never understood the concept of
toll tax. When providing roads is the responsibility of the Government and an
engine of economic growth, how can it charge for fulfilling its basic
responsibility? Moreover, a hefty sum has already been charged as road tax at
the time of purchase of a vehicle. Also, there is absolutely no policy in the
country on toll, what should be the minimum distance between one toll booth and
the other, for how long should the motorists pay toll tax after a project has
been completed?
During elections, I went to
several places in Himachal Pradesh but was appalled at the apathy of the
Government of the day in providing decent roads. Perhaps one of the major
tourist attractions of the country, Himachal today begs for better road infrastructure,
something which no one is bothered about. Except the NH-22, which connects
State capital Shimla, most of the other roads are in a dilapidated condition
with the upper layer exposed at several places, pot holes appearing from
nowhere and a nightmare for drivers.
The NH-21, connecting Chandigarh
to Manali is in a bad shape at several places, particularly when one enters
Himachal Pradesh. The Kiratpur Sahib to Swarghat stretch hardly has the upper
layer on it. After that till Mandi, there are stretches where the potholes are
quite huge. This is one of the most important stretches in the State which is
important not only for the tourists but also strategically. It goes to Manali
and beyond to Rohtang Pass Nangal-McLeodganj
Road which is good till Amb and little beyond it.
But then come the potholes when you require your driving skills to manoeuvre
the hill roads in and around Kangra, something which is not only tough but also
dangerous in stretches. The Shimla-Mandi road is no different as it too faces
the apathy of the State Government.
I don’t know why the Himachal
Government is so indifferent as roads are the showpieces of the State. Anyone
who travels on a badly maintained road will simply blame the State Government,
will not hear any reasons and will also vote you out at the first given
opportunity. When I talked to officials and candidates, all they did was to
blame some petty contractor for the delay or some legal points. No one is going
to hear such arguments anymore. People simply want better roads to travel.
The Chandigarh-Dehradun road
passes through three States — Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The
stretch in the hills near Nahan could have been much better. The one near Kala
Amb in the industrial belt is simply too bad, the upper layer is missing, there
are potholes and dust all around. In the Haryana section, the road is narrow
given the heavy traffic.
Post-Independence, it was Atal
Bihari Vajpayee who realised for the first time that roads are the lifelines of
the country and made appropriate policy to spruce it up under his Minister Gen
BC Khanduri. But in the last 10 years, the UPA Government is on a snail’s pace,
perhaps forgetting that roads could act as a catalyst for economic growth. Busy
as it was peddling ideas on removal of poverty, it forgot that roads indeed
play a vital role in economic growth and ultimately help bring opportunities
and improve living conditions.
Travelling in Himachal Pradesh,
Haryana, Punjab , Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Delhi ,
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in recent months, I found
construction at most places on the highway and space has been gobbled up by
some commercial activity or earmarked for the purpose.
But what perplexed me the most
was the fact that the National Highways were perpetually under construction
everywhere. At most of the places they were being six-laned. When I visited
Jaipur from Delhi a year ago, a
similar construction was on. When the new millennium dawned and I went to
Jaipur, the NHAI was four-laning the road.
I wondered whether construction
and widening would be a permanent feature of the roads of the country. Half a
decade from now, the need would be felt for eight-laned roads and maybe 15-20
years from now, the volume of traffic would force the authorities to have
20-laned roads.
I don’t understand what prevents
the authorities from constructing 12-lane roads straightway keeping in view the
traffic scenario of 2025 or 2040. It does not require rocket science technology
to know that the number of vehicles on roads keep increasing everyday and they
need space to move. I am sure after the six-laning of NH-1 is complete, no one
knows the deadline, need would again be felt for eight-laning and then
10-laning. There would be construction activity going on all the time and we
would hardly find a 200-250 km
of expressway free from any construction or broadening activity.
Frequent travellers on NH 1 from Delhi
to Amritsar or Chandigarh
would vouch for the fact that this road remains under construction most of the
time. While the road from Delhi to
Panipat has been six-laned, the road from there to Jalandhar is still under
construction. Not surprisingly, there are diversions galore all the way. After
the work is complete, more vehicles would be added and a need would be felt to
widen the road further.
The Ambala-Zirakpur (Chandigarh )
stretch was four-laned a few years ago and already a need is being felt to
widen it with multi-storied housing complexes coming in the vicinity of the
Capital and accompanying vehicles clogging the road. Hopefully, the authorities
would show some vision of looking at the traffic scenario 20 years from now and
take appropriate action and not just knee-jerk reaction of broadening the road
every 3-4 years. For the new Government, following the Vajpayee model is the
key. Create the infrastructure and then opportunities will follow. (May 12, 2014)
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