Indian Roads Thread

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Mar 2015 13:56

I hae never seen a govt product series of films that demo what is safe and unsafe for driving using such practical clips...apart from usual lane driving is sane driving campaigns.

a film is worth 1000 words.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 20 Mar 2015 14:08

Singha wrote:I hae never seen a govt product series of films that demo what is safe and unsafe for driving using such practical clips...apart from usual lane driving is sane driving campaigns.

+1. They need to learn from the British PATHE* folks, on these kind of media campaigns. Basic road safety lessons have to start right from school (even if the kids don't drive the vehicle in next 10 years). If govt. plans to make such films, my two immediate suggestions would be :-
1. Teaching the long distance bus and truck drivers the right procedure in using the indicator flash lights. A blinking right indicator, is NOT the indication for another vehicle to over-take. It means the vehicle is planning to take a right turn.
2. Govt. plans to bring in RFID based automatic toll collection system. How about a campaign (started much in advance) which shows how the system works, and how the toll gates would be identified? Or else, even the RFID enabled toll booths will have 20 slow moving trucks each paying the toll manually

. The campaign can be a success if we find that at least 70% of the vehicle driving population knows how to use the RFID based toll collection system effectively.

I don't know if there is a way to pass this message to GoI. During the Doordarshan days there were those small videos which talked about National Integration ; Ek Chidiya, Anek Chidiya..& Mile Sur Mera Tumhaara. etc. Those were good campaigns during those days.

*I watch British PATHE videos, especially their videos on train operations etc. They also videos about Life of a Postman, Life of a Train Driver etc; all explaining the role these people play for the betterment of the society. The way they show-case even small aspects, at least would make every UK citizen proud of his/her country.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Mar 2015 21:54

anything which makes people feel good, educated and at ease about their daily life is not in interest of MSM.

only bad news is relayed via print and tv media, seldom the good.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 20 Mar 2015 22:23

Sachin wrote:I don't know if there is a way to pass this message to GoI.

Sir, have you looked at mygov.in?

Zynda · Post by **Zynda** » 20 Mar 2015 23:46

Sachin wrote:A blinking right indicator, is NOT the indication for another vehicle to over-take. It means the vehicle is planning to take a right turn.

I know this is a serious issue but I just can't help myself from

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Mar 2015 15:13

ldev wrote:This youtube video is likely India. Can anyone figure out which city this is at/near? The human carnage is horrifying.

Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri_selam NH-7. Site seems to be near CMR . Bagaluruan's might recognise it. Few KSRTC busses seems in the accident. There are some other sites in the compilation. Could be on same stretch.Different cams and angles as well.

Haresh · Post by **Haresh** » 21 Mar 2015 15:29

Michelle Yeoh, the actress who starred in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a International road safety ambassador.
She was in a doc sometime ago and they visited India. 100,000 + people are killed on Indian roads evry year.

http://www.fiafoundation.org/our-work/m ... helle-yeoh

Maybe the government can appoint a famous Indian actor to be a road safety ambassador for India, and then appoint others to be ambassadors for each state.

Public Information films need to be made. There are quite a few on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ness+video

ldev · Post by **ldev** » 21 Mar 2015 18:33

>>>Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri_selam NH-7. Site seems to be near CMR . Bagaluruan's might recognise it. Few KSRTC busses seems in the accident. There are some other sites in the compilation. Could be on same stretch.Different cams and angles as well.

Thanks for the location update.

I remember talking to a friend in India some years ago, after driving in the West had become an ingrained habit for me. He summed up the predominant driving rule in India quite well, " I look ahead and take care of whats ahead of me, the guy behind me will take care of whats behind me". Virtually all of the accidents on this video have happened because of that "rule" i.e. do not look behind you or besides you....that is not your responsibility, just look straight ahead. That is also why rear view mirrors whether inside or outside the car are relegated for ornamental use.

I love driving and used to drive in India on my visits there years ago, but the sheer hassle if you ever get involved in an accident especially one involving loss of life made me give up that pleasure. The first thing that will happen is that your passport will be taken away until the case is resolved which may take years or you will have to bribe people heavily. Just not worth it.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Mar 2015 21:49

Roads are upgraded to International Standards but driving habits are not.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 22 Mar 2015 00:14

Roads are upgraded to International Standards but driving habits are not.

That is the understatement of the year.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 22 Mar 2015 08:41

Horrific video. The carnage esp. seems to be amongst 2 wheelers. Almost all appear to be fatal.

My own experience is that the drivers have no clue the risks they are taking. I constantly have to exhort my drivers to 'meduva medhva' - 'dhirae-dhirae', but they too often can't be bothered to listen. 99 times out of hundred the crazy maneuver works and fellow keeps trying the same till something really bad happens.

I remember Singha saar said some times ago that the USA system does a yoemans job keeping the poor drivers in USA from hurting themselves. And I couldn't help but think that drivers in USA are better than he gave them credit for.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 22 Mar 2015 09:09

Poor driving and chappy/motorbike riding... Insane shite. It's not like they cannot look right and left... Just saw the first 3 minutes!!!

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 24 Mar 2015 01:01

This is just crazy., they do not know how to drive in India., while in Western countries the pedestrians have right of a way and then smaller vehicles and then little larger while buses and trucks always travel on slower lanes (especially close to the cities and are enforced by police)

Road etiquette needs to be taught from the kindergarten along with things like what to do in Fire, how to hide in case of a terrorist attack, etc.

manju · Post by **manju** » 24 Mar 2015 20:20

Agree 100% most of the accidents were due receklessness, not with standing the poor design..

When I drive to Bluru on (Hyd Bluru) I see a couple of places with speed breakers and barricades... at some junctions. I am happy they have them... there are too many crazy nuts who think they are too good to be involved in accidents..

Off late I am seeing a lot of 10 yr (+/1 3 year) old in my town going on bikes... god save them and the public

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 24 Mar 2015 21:03

People in India just have no road sense. They just don't care for others, they don't even care for themselves. You will see people just driving into busy intersections without even bothering to look, there seems to be no sense of self-preservation. The feeling is "if I don't look, then I am right and I can blame someone else for an accident".

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Mar 2015 22:45

manju wrote:...not with standing the poor design..

For the money spent this is not necessarily a poor design. Could the design be improved? Sure it can, for more money of course… … Such intersections exist all over the world. Esp. along state highway type roads. There are several 70mph state highways near my town in USa that have such an intersection every ½ mile +-. If you note there is a flashing red light in all directions. The rules of the road are that one slows down to a stop and takes turns crossing. The problem is the fellows think they are on a freeway which they are not. There seems to be no sense of stopping distance, right of ways, traffic judgement and there is zero predictability on what the other driver will do. In India drivers studiously avoid eye contact with the other driver as that would mean they would have to act with patience. Patience is a strong no-no in too much Indian driving.

To my mind the most revealing accidents are the one vehicle accidents. Yes, amazingly there are several in that video where a single vehicle is unable to negotiate the intersection safely!! The craziest one is when a van fellow attempts to take a left turn @ 100kmph and slams into the light pole. I mean, I ask u...

I also wonder if the drinking problem has some impact on the poor reflexes shown.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 25 Mar 2015 08:42

Drinking at mid day?

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 25 Mar 2015 09:29

Singha wrote:Drinking at mid day?

You may not believe it, but there is some truth in it. There are people who do get sloshed right in the afternoon. It may be the daily wage labourers, or even minor government officials who can be 'flexible' on their work timings. Or it could be even semi-skilled workers like say plumbers, carpenters etc. who can decide their own working hours. In Kerala there was a time when bars opened up at 1000hrs - like any government office. If they opened at that time, that means they expected patrons as well. Most of the Class 4/Group D workers landed up at 1030hrs in the office, after having a couple of pegs. The bars were instructed to open at 1100hrs.

Kerala Police had started an over-drive against drunken driving, and by and large every political party supported them. Stringent punishments were meted out and all possibilities under a new K.P Act Sec 118A and Sec.185 MV Act was used. Requirement to get station bail, appearance before magistrate and a hefty fine, brought in the results. With numbers K.P has been able to prove that if drunken driving is curbed, accidents were getting reduced.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 25 Mar 2015 16:02

Also, Does drinking over a period of time, due to excessive alcohol consumption slow down your reflexes/eye sight, since there is damage to Liver, liver function- digestion and some alcohol being in the blood.

This combined with a laid back, careless attitude can be fatel

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 26 Mar 2015 03:17

I saw the video on the youtube, and in the comments section, people don't point any problem with the intersection. They only point out
the lack of driving sense as the cause of the accidents.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 26 Mar 2015 03:30

The above discussion boils down to proper education about driving & safety.

I requested GoI (MyGov.in) to bring safe Driving courses under MNREGA so people can get a paid (RS 1000 for 1day course) for attending this course. Make it mandatory that one has to submit this certificate for any license or RTO clearance.

In some courses, people are shown this type of videos for hours to drill the point into people's heads.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 27 Mar 2015 02:38

Sure better literacy levels would help, but....

... Consider one other thing. Almost all the accidents involve one other component - high speed. Many of the worst accidents involve speeding.

I think these people are just terribly inexperienced and lack judgment when considering high speed traffic which is fairly new to India. You can see again and again people are startled when the vehicles closes on them double quick time from speeding drivers. Too many times they panic and freeze. It’s a shame that folks get into name calling of these poor fellows. That said the driving technique is quite shaky in any case to begin with. And poor reflexes don't help.

Many years ago when I first got to USA as nanha, I somehow tried to walk between terminals @ old LAX and panicked when the cross walk lights started flashing. I froze and ended up stuck in the middle of the traffic lanes. Fortunately I managed to skip down lane to a central divider which I them climbed and saved my life. A 120 kmph vehicle is tough to judge for inexperienced folks. It can happen to anyone.

Take a look at minute 5:15. Tractor fellow misjudges van speed and knocks the van out of the park and into the ditch. He panics and runs away abandoning tractor & load with engine running. Tractor rolls off road and into ditch, almost running into the same van he just knocked off road! High comedy + drama....

Saddest part of the entire thing is tractor fellow actually followed correct protocol, he stopped at intersection and carefully chose a gap and them tried to cross. Yet he ended up in ditch. All due to speed, that van was surely well over the speed limit.

Javee · Post by **Javee** » 27 Mar 2015 10:39

Toyota CEO said the same, comparing the road safety and deaths in Japan to India. When asked about their plans for India, he said Toyota is planning to start driver Ed centers through out India to educate road safety.

The other depressing on the roads is letting not a girl/women not overtaking you. I'm sure a lot of them are clumsy drivers, but I have seen dangerous behaviour almost daily in ECR because some hothead guy thinks a woman should not get ahead of him. Such is our road safety.

Javee · Post by **Javee** » 27 Mar 2015 10:45

Toyota Driving School launched in Kochi

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the launch of its first Toyota Driving School (TDS) here in pursuance of its deep-rooted safety mission. This is the company s first driving school in India and will be managed by Nippon Toyota-- region s leading Toyota authorised dealership and service facility.

The driving school was inaugurated by State Fisheries Minister K Babu, Naomi Ishii, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Babu Moopan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nippon Motors, a company release said. Speaking on the occasion Naomi Ishii said,

Today is an important day for Toyota as we are launching our pilot driving school in this beautiful state of Kerala.For us, this is a big opportunity to come closer to you with a solution for one of the biggest challenges our country is facing today - road safety.

He said Toyota is committed to ensuring safer driving experience in India. We believe everyone deserves to be safe and this is what drives ....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Mar 2015 12:41

One option to do this honestly is subsidize the commercial vehicle sellers to offer a low cost driver safety training and some practical instruction on ranges setup by govt funding over few days course and make it mandatory to obtain commercial license. Taxi drivers would also need to take this.

Fine violators heavily and make all rto databases electronic and networked asap

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 27 Mar 2015 21:30

That video is horrifying. Some accidents are due to excessive speed and slow reflexes, but others are just dumbfounding. Some people don't seem to have any basic common sense. There is one bike which takes a right onto the highway. Now there are two lanes and going into the nearest (right) lane should be the automatic thought. There is car coming at high speed in the left lane anyway, yet the bike takes a long right turn (not at high speed) straight in front of the car in the left lane. It is almost as if he was trying to commit suicide. Plenty more like this where common sense is thrown out of the window.

ldev · Post by **ldev** » 28 Mar 2015 19:51

There is no discrimination of country, color or religion when it comes to foolish driving as the video below illustrates!! From Canada

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 05 Apr 2015 21:28

Now that even a socialist paradise is meeting set goals in civil works with "pillars and girders" model of metro rail with civil works to complete by the end of 2016 (ie 3 yrs), I am encouraged to dust up the old idea of an exclusive elevated corridor for high density segments in the country. Kochi metro at 25km total length is approximately Rs 5000 crores total for a 1+1 lane structure. Assuming only half of the cost is for civil works, we could squeeze in at least 3+3 lane corridor of 25km length at a cost of Rs 5000 crores for civil works. A pilot project would be to connect the densest parts like TVM-Kochi of 250km length, within 3 years at a cost of Rs50,000 crores with the least amount of land acquisition required, if kept to current alignment of NH47/NH17 as pillars can be put in the median, like they did for the metro rail in Kochi.

At Rs500 toll, it works out to 100 crores vehicles tolled to recover base cost. Should be recoverable in 10 years at least using madarassa math. Keep slow moving vehicles to ground level, and allow only 4 wheelers on the expressway.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 05 Apr 2015 21:51

[deleted] Misunderstood Bade-ji's post.

Sridhar K · Post by **Sridhar K** » 05 Apr 2015 22:01

Had some expectation from this Govt. on improvements in National highways but it has been disappointing so far at least in TN. The NHs in TN outside of the GQ are still the same (bad) and in the NH, the toll has increased but maintenance going down. Case in point, Chennai-Ranipet stretch of Chennai-Bangalore highway. Same case with Chennai-bypass, increased toll but horribly bumpy tarmac.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 06 Apr 2015 02:10

The problem with NHs is that that infrastructure companies are heavily in debt due to the holdup in road building during the UPA years. Companies are insolvent, banks are heavily leveraged, and GoI lacks additional financial resources to bail them out. It's all very well to say 'why doesn't GoI do SOMETHING ??', but it's important to understand the issues. GoI has in fact just announced a massive boost in road construction spending, but it's also the case that banks loaned a lot to infrastructure companies and are leveraged as a result. Please see the following two posts previously made in the economy thread in the last three months by me:

Budget might announce 70% rise in allocation for roads

The Union Budget for 2015-16, scheduled to be presented on February 28, is likely to see the biggest jump in budgetary allocation for the roads and highways sector in the past decade. Sources in the roads ministry estimate a rise of about 70 per cent in budgetary allocation — from Rs 26,000 crore estimated for 2014-15 to about Rs 45,000 crore for 2015-16.

The government plans to construct 15,000 km of roads in the next financial year.

The last such increase in the allocation for the roads sector was when the National Democratic Alliance government, under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, launched the National Highway Development Project: The 2000-01 Budget had seen a year-on-year increase of 83 per cent in the budgetary allocation towards the surface transport ministry — from Rs 2,823 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 5,184 crore in 2000-01.
...
The road cess fund is collected from an additional excise duty on petrol and diesel. Currently, road cess is Rs 2 a litre. Earlier, it was proposed road cess be increased to fund infrastructure development in the country. Business Standard had reported Budget 2015-16 was likely to announce an increase of Rs 1-2 a litre in road cess.

“We have sought an increase in road cess. However, it’s possible the basic excise duty hike will stay and the proceeds directed to our corpus for infrastructure development,” said a senior ministry official, requesting anonymity.

The following graph shows how infrastructure spending fell dramatically in the mid-late 2000s as GoI spent on dole programs, and only perked up after the financial crisis forced them to boost growth:

Corporate indebtedness is due to slow project execution driven by various bureaucratic hurdles (environmental and other clearances) supply side factors, including price of fuel, price and supply of steel, cement and other inputs, and monetary conditions - the fall of the Rupee and high interest rates playing havoc with balance sheets. A significant part of indebtedness is that of infrastructure companies, to whom lending has leapfrogged in the last decade:

As you can see, infra companies now account for >35% of bank credit, up from <4% in 2000.

The above figures are from mid 2013. Since then, conditions have not worsened much, but crucially, are not improving very quickly either. A rate cut plus a strengthening Rupee can do quite a lot here.

A more recent news report from Nov 2014: high corporate debt persists

A bigger land mine is the high leverage levels of Indian corporates. He conceded that the leverage levels have not deteriorated from the levels seen in September 2013, but there has not been any significant recovery either. Due to the high debt, many companies will not be in a position to tap the opportunities that the economic growth will offer.

For instance, the infrastructure companies.

"You are putting the thrust on infrastructure for growth. But how many infrastructure companies are in a position to cash in on that? Most of them are debt ridden," he pointed out.

Some of India's most indebted companies are in the infrastructure sector. JP Associates has a debt of Rs 72,599 crore and its debt to equity ratio stands at 5.16. GMR Infra, meanwhile, has loans worth Rs 45,041 crore with a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. Gammon India and Hindustan Construction Company have higher ratios of 19.26 and 15.06, respectively.

However, the problem is not restricted to infrastructure companies.

"The solution to that would be equity infusion or asset sale. A lot of them (Indian companies, not only infra) have started on that path, particularly asset sales. But asset sales have a problem. If you sell more of your assets, your production capacity and your earnings will also suffer. So a heavy equity infusion is the need of the hour," he said.

And banks would not want to play a role as they are already straddled with a huge Rs 8.5 lakh crore stressed assets, which forms about 14 percent of their total loan book. In fact, India Ratings has estimated that in another five months the restructured assets of the banks will rise by another Rs 1 lakh crore.

For some of the weak corporates, an increase in global interest rates will only worsen the situation. This is because they have not hedged their forex exposure. Some of them argue that they have foreign currency earnings, but that, according to Mukherjee, is a baseless argument. Most foreign currency loans are linked to Libor.

If the interest rate increases and most of the foreign currency loans are linked to Libor, we would see a significant increase in the debt servicing outflow from India. If a currency depreciation happens simultaneously with a possible interest rate increase globally, then the weaker Indian corporates will be in quite a lot of trouble, he believes.

"When they had taken loans the forward premiums were much lower. Now the forward premium is between 7 and 8 percent. If you have a loan at Libor + 300 or 350 bps, you are looking at excess of 11.5-12% which is what you could have possibly got in India," he said.

In all likelihood, an interest rate increase in the US will result in a very high foreign currency outflow.

A currency depreciation, which is expected to happen once the US raises interest rates, will also be detrimental to the wobbly recovery. In an earlier report, India Ratings had said that 1 percent rupee depreciation will take away 1.2-2 percent of the operating profit of consumer durables companies. For oil and gas, the negative sensitivity is 1.5 percent and for others up to 2.15 percent.

"It (a rupee depreciation) will not only affect the sentiment, but it will also affect the balance sheet. We were any way expecting a protracted recovery. That would get further protracted. In extreme case, the recovery or the bottoming out may go into a tailspin. We do not know the extent of the outcome. Clearly we are very cautious," he said.

The current situation however, is looking better. Interest rates are not quite threatening to rise outside India. US rates are in fact falling lately. The Rupee is slowly strengthening again. A positive growth cycle in India, generating both a stronger Rupee and falling interest rates, can further improve the situation.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 06 Apr 2015 17:37

Sridhar,

About 3-4 lakh crore road projects were stuck. Gadkari and the govt have managed to unlock them. About two-thirds are about to start or started and about one-third is still being worked upon. So expect to see results in 2-3 yrs time although I don't know the situation specifically for TN.

Sridhar K · Post by **Sridhar K** » 06 Apr 2015 22:07

Suraj, Supratik

Thanks for the insights. My worry was not about major expansions/changes but general maintenance for the toll they collect going down with increase in toll cost. The Chennai-Chinglepet stretch has been crying for a six lane for the past 5 years but can understand that the six laning was a major work which could have been stuck due to funding issue.

The Chennai-Sriperumbadur stretch of the GQ, the Madras HC put a stay order on toll collection until they fill the potholes. The patched it up, showed the photo to the HC and started collecting tolls again (increased) but the road is really bumpy. Same with the Chennai bypass.

Will wait and see how things span out considering that Gadkari is managing this portfolio and has been talking about some very good stuff.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 07 Apr 2015 20:57

Sridhar,

That is a concern. I have seen newly built highways with potholes waiting for accidents to happen e.g. NH8 in Delhi was in bad condition until recently that too inside Delhi. I don't know the exact rules but if it is not there they should revisit penalties for not maintaining tolled roads.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 07 Apr 2015 21:27

Implementation delays leave infra companies in debt. So do changing interest rate burdens. The net result is that the lions share of their revenues goes into debt carrying cost, leaving behind less for maintenance. There's very little to be gained by prosecuting them for it, unless deliberate wrongdoing is shown. It's a structural problem. We can only build and maintain roads efficiently if the entire process is conducted smoothly and in a timebound manner. After years of underinvestment combined with red tape obstructionism, environmental hurdles etc, it is to be expected that a large base of road infrastructure has not received the level of maintenance it should. Sure, you could blame the company for not investing enough in maintenance, or simply building lower quality tarmac because of mounting cost of financing. But who's going to punish the former environmental ministry for blocking clearances ? Or other ministries and leadership for screwing up growth, driving stagflationary conditions that caused the cost of money to rise so much and squeeze these companies ? What GoI is doing here is painstakingly trying to solve the problem, not do the populist thing of punishing a few scapegoat companies while ignoring the factors that led to the situation, and worse, cause that situation to persist to this day.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 07 Apr 2015 22:13

While I agree with you there are also systemic problems. I don't know about other highways but NH8 was built not so long ago. There was a problem with the operator who didn't repair the road. I don't think it is a good idea to leave highways with potholes where vehicles are traveling at 100 kmph. It took them long to resolve the issue. It has recently been repaired. I hear Sridhar mention of poorly maintained highways in TN. So it may be more than an isolated incident. There should be redressal mechanisms to ensure that highways don't go the way of our city roads. Typically city roads are a den of corruption and malfunction. There should be a mechanism by which a built highway is properly maintained and govt steps in promptly if there are issues or if the developer is lax in maintaining the highway.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 07 Apr 2015 22:26

If the operator is saddled with debt, he cannot devote revenues to maintenance. It doesn't matter how old or new the road is. Like I said above, the operator can do two things - build the road to spec at higher cost, and struggle to maintain it because of debt load, or build to lower spec to try and get around the mounting debt burden, but anyway still have a bad quality road they don't have money to maintain.

One could blame the operator here, but the fact is there's a systemic issue with respect to roadbuilding that will not be fixed merely by a populist solution of identifying one or more operators and punishing them, while ignoring the underlying systemic problems. See the graph above - we faced nearly 10 years of underinvestment in roadbuilding . It won't be fixed overnight.

Infrastructure development is extremely sensitive to cost of capital, regulatory bottlenecks and clearance speeds. The Chinese have such good infrastructure because they're handled all these efficiently (not necessarily equitably) year after year.

Sridhar K · Post by **Sridhar K** » 07 Apr 2015 23:13

I have seen two types of tolled roads in my travel in South India. The ones operated by a SPV/Private entity like L & T and the other operated by NHAI. The ones operated by the private entities in TN are newer, costlier but decently maintained.

The issue seems to be with the NHAI operated ones around Chennai which were laid during NDA-1 times but overall maintenance has been bad. Does NHAI operate these roads or they just collect tolls and outsource the road maintenance to someone.

Outside of the GQs in TN, the two laned state highways are much better than most of the 2 laned NH (not tolled).

Added later, the NHAI operated toll booth collection is outsourced to contractors (one of my friends relative won the auction with great political support). What I infer from him that toll collection is mostly done by political heavyweights in an area and they employ thugs to take care of errant motorist fighting with the toll booth staff. Reports of thugs beating up drivers has been reported frequently in local newspapers.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 08 Apr 2015 19:39

@suraj

I am in principal agreement with you. It has indeed been a bad 10 yrs of malgovernance. My observation of NHs in India is infrequent and limited. So I don't know if the problem is financial or QC issue. The only two highways I have seen recently are NH8 and NH1. NH8 was in bad condition at least near Delhi and NH1 upgradation was stagnant. Both may have been due to last 10 yrs malgovernance. Both have been resolved at present. NH8 has a new operator and is being relaid and expansion will be complete this year. The stagnant NH1 is being 8 laned and construction has picked up and will be ready soon. My hope is that the new govt puts in place a mechanism by which these newly built highways are well maintained and serves the purpose and don't go the way of city roads in India which are often in deplorable condition. I get hope from Gadkari under whom many infrastructure projects were built in MH. The Mumbai-Pune expressway - which was built under him is still in superb condition from what I gather.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Apr 2015 20:45

Most toll booths have at least one gun armed guard...