Indian Roads Thread

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 12 Oct 2012 00:24

mmm that would be against election norms, right?

because others don't have modi.

member_23677 · Post by **member_23677** » 12 Oct 2012 04:41

^^^ For such (anti-poor

) developments, only Hindu terrorists can work... seculars can only provide Rs. 100 per month

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 12 Oct 2012 04:47

SaiK wrote:mmm that would be against election norms, right?

because others don't have modi.

1) Long term-- electoral forms dont play a role here. only Indian interests.

2) NaMo is only one.

others can ony dream. sorry blasphemy we have the gleat first phamili.

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 20 Oct 2012 20:41

Two countries to look at - Japan and Singapore. Both had extreme cogestion problems - part of which was blamed on lack of discipline. They sorted it out. So either accept congestion as price of greater democracy/freedom of choice/expression - whatever - or go through a brief but painfully necessary period by which fines and penalties and disqualifications are strictly enforced without any recourse to palm softening of the local/state/central level "good friend".

It just needs changing the behaviour of the herd once. It stays like that for a long long time afterwards.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 25 Oct 2012 18:32

Jaspal Bhatti dies in a Road Accident when the Honda Accord that his son was driving ran into a Tree that was on a corner (3:00 AM) early morning., had there been reflector or a light on this tree he might have survived. Every year over 1 Lakh people die in road accidents in India., the reason is inadequate shoulder as well as poor quality of the roads.

Vivek K · Post by **Vivek K** » 25 Oct 2012 22:52

^^^^Very sad! Great loss!!

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 25 Oct 2012 23:31

The rains in Chennai were fun in a sad way. The much vaunted OMR road was flooded in places. The left side/lane had 3 ft of water and buses could not pull over in bus stops when that area is 3ft underwater.

I drove thru the water on my CBR on high throttle on 2nd gear (to keep water out of silencer), it was quite a thrill ride. The water came over the headlamp fairing and drenched me completely.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 26 Oct 2012 00:43

Jaspal Bhatti was probably not well adapted to the dharmic roads in India. Indian roads are the best for Indians and if you disagree you must be a MUTU.

Saddened by his loss. I also wouldn't be surprised if his son was driving at an unsafe speed for road conditions. It's hard to crash into a tree at 3 am unless you're driving faster than visibility allows.

nakul · Post by **nakul** » 26 Oct 2012 01:28

It is sad that some people are happy to prove their point on such unfortunate occasions. I wish god give them sadbuddhi.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 26 Oct 2012 01:36

Frankly, it is apt as with the usually enjoyable Jaspal Bhatti sarcasm. He unfortunately just became a victim to the realism of India this time around.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 26 Oct 2012 01:55

As someone pointed out in the other thread, in those days of darkness, he walked in from Punjab and lit our hearts up with his brilliance. Certain comments here could be avoided.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 26 Oct 2012 02:56

That will be the only comment from me. No disrespect intended to the dead. Indians deserve better.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 26 Oct 2012 21:17

Abhijeet wrote: It's hard to crash into a tree at 3 am unless you're driving faster than visibility allows.

2-4 Am is when most crashes happen either due to driver fatigue or High beam light etc... even within permissible speed limit..

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 29 Oct 2012 07:26

The rains in Chennai give a fairly high level idea of how our traffic would adapt when an entire lane is taken away for say a BRTS. Earlier 30% of the road would be lost with pedestrians walking on roads what with the footpaths, if they exist, being taken away by encroachers, hawkers and plain storage of construction material/rubbish. Now with the rains, I see that the road availability is now about 50% with stagnant water taking up quite a bit of room. Of course with a BRTS in place a lot more of the traffic presently on the roads in vehicles would be riding on those buses.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 29 Oct 2012 11:06

I am making this post to share my experience my recent road trip from Delhi to Jaipur and return. I was under the impression that the road was being rebuilt and widened. Along with numerous flyovers being constructed at busy intersections on the highway. What I saw was distressing. The road was in a poor shape, with the sties of many under construction flyovers bearing a deserted look. (No project offices, no machinery, no workers, raw materials etc. )

It seems that the work has been abandoned midway.

The return journey was a nightmare, with a drive of 260 Kms taking 7 Hrs.

anchal · Post by **anchal** » 29 Oct 2012 11:45

This experience is about the Yamuna Expressway travelling from NOIDA to Agra and back. Overall a satisfying and sanitized experience. I took UPSRTC aam admi bus from NOIDA at 6:30 PM on a Fri. This is the last bus timing. UPSRTC has 6 buses plying on the road each way. No AC chi chi buses, we are socialist republic only!

I reached Agra at 10:00 PM (home) after braving both NOIDA and Agra intra-city traffic. Cost - Rs 163 onlee. If I take my car out the same trip will cost me 1500 petrol + 320 Rs toll. And I will gain at most an hour, so my choice is clear
Now UPSRTC can be a big beneficiary by tapping this traffic. But like most government departments in UP, they are least concerned about commercialization
A small tidbit. Since I also use NH2 frequently, talked to Gulshan Dhaba owner. Their business has dropped by at leasy 30% - they claimed. Though by my experience, when one could find a place to sit in that large dhaba, orders must have been at least halved. There were few cars parked even at the peak evening hours. The quality of traffic on this road has gone to dogs after Expressway was opened with now only jugaad, tractors and yahoo pillion riders ruling the roost.
Things change!

anchal · Post by **anchal** » 29 Oct 2012 11:50

So all in all for Agra natives at least, living and working in NOIDA is a breeze. One can commute each weekend to home just like good folks in Chennai and Bangalore do

If Delhi Metro connects G Noida to Gurgaon, bliss!

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 29 Oct 2012 19:27

the lucknow sultanate right after taking office has announced going slow on the linking noida and g.noida by metro to show their pro-farmer credentials.

UPSRTC in this day and age not running multi axle volvos and mercs from Delhi to Agra to soak up tourist traffic is the usual disgrace seen in most SRTC ops outside of south & west india.

chilarai · Post by **chilarai** » 04 Nov 2012 04:43

Naga IAS officer builds 100-km road in Manipur without govt help

"My wife and I donated our one month's salary, Armstrong paid five months' of his, and our mother paid our dad's one month's pension of Rs 5,000. Our youngest brother, Lungtuabui, recently started working. He donated his entire first month's pay for the project," he added.

The family together pooled Rs 4 lakh to start the project. They hired a bulldozer and bought two earthmovers. "But it was not enough; we needed more. So, we turned to Facebook. We created a page, seeking donations, and the response has been overwhelming. In the last three days, we have received Rs 1.2 lakh from friends all over the globe, with contributions varying from Rs 50 to $1000. And they are willing to contribute more," the young bureaucrat said. "The villagers, too, have contributed as per their capabilities: some are providing food and accommodation for the workers; some are supplying fuel for the earthmovers. They have also provided manpower for the project. We did not have to engage a contractor with so many people volunteering to shoulder that responsibility," he added.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 04 Nov 2012 12:03

Theo_Fidel wrote:Another data point.

Annual Death per 100,000 vehicles.

Bangladesh 6,300
Pakistan 2,300
Vietnam 1238
India 315
Sri Lanka 221
Turkey 97
Malaysia 36
S.Korea 29
Italy 12 (yes claimed chaotic and all)
Japan 6.8

....

Something is wrong with this list, the GCC countries especially UAE was a Topper in this is nowehere to be seen.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Nov 2012 14:54

the rural areas of malaysia and thailand seem to be very law abiding in terms of following traffic rules though no cops for miles and miles...and this inspite of smooth roads, no speedbreakers and some powerful looking souped up pickups and bikes in use by the shaukeen types. give indians such roads and lack of policing and all the yahoos south of leh will be making a beeline to display their F1 driving skills.

is it to do with higher per capita income or some kind of better social sense in general?

the yahoos who drive rashly here are not all uneducated or poor - far from it. neither is malaysia or thailand very rich or uber educated. for balance one is buddhist and the other muslim so no religious bias either.

bangkok has massive traffic jams in CBD every evening, you can literally walk on the footpath faster than traffic, but no evidence of the lane cutting and trying to squeeze into every crack like here.

nowhere in the world have I see the kind of road behaviour that is the norm in india - but I have not been to BD, TSP, SL or anywhere in africa yet.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 05 Nov 2012 05:55

From pics I have seen or tales told by visitors, BD and TSP or even SL is definitely up there with us. We are in August company with our behavior on indic roads.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 05 Nov 2012 07:57

Till October, NHAI had met 6% of road contracts target for year

anchal · Post by **anchal** » 05 Nov 2012 14:57

This time drove on Yamuna Expressway by car. Started the journey at 5:35 PM from Agra after navigating few monkeys on bikes who know only how to shift gears and race ahead without helment or indicator. One idiot was even smiling after bumping into the car. Another idiot was trailing a mini-truck and trying to squeeze in few mm space between my car and the truck.

Starting at 5:35, I reached my home in NOIDA at 8:01 PM covering like (165 + 23 + 10 = 198 KMs) including a 15 min break at one toll plaza. Costly but could not resist FIL's dictat to go by car!

Some tips / observations on YE
1. Be on guard always as it is easy to slack off in a monotonous trail of nothing for 160 KMs. Unusual for a desi road
2. Goes without saying always use indicators when switching lanes even if you think you are alone on the strech. People do 140 - 160 KMPH on the road and pass you by in a ziffy!
3. Taking a gap on any of the 3 tolls is strongly suggested. After a continous run of 100+ KMs on a concrete road, one can "smell" that tyres are hot
4. Specially in night, I think best lane is the middile lane among the three. On the left most lane, tractor trolleys with no back light are BIG danger. The right most lane is for overtaking and other bigger dogs. During the day time, I would suggest left most lane is the best one
5. One can see tyre scratches leading to the road divider- mostly accidents. So travel safe and keep YE helpline number ready - printed on the back of the toll receipt as well
6. I came to know NHAI has increased the toll fare for NH2 (old Delhi-Agra road) by more than 100%! So while I used to pay 92 rs in toll (including 22 rs on DF Skyway) from NOIDA to Agra now it is 182 Rs. This compares with 320 Rs toll on YE. Considering less maintanence of the car, better mileage, less body sprain and shorter travel time, YE seems to be now a better choice

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 05 Nov 2012 21:53

anchal wrote:1. Be on guard always as it is easy to slack off in a monotonous trail of nothing for 160 KMs. Unusual for a desi road

Just did a similar stretch between Perundurai Bye-pass and Salem suburbs on the tolled high-way two days back. Was all alone, and to be honest it is a very tiring job. I told my folks at home that I am now going to be some thing similar to an Indian "engine driver" driving a train at good speed. All looks good, but still you cannot go lazy and sleep. Engine Drivers have their assistants to keep talking to (and call out signal aspects), but this time I did not have that luxury as well. On the out-ward trip, the weather was also bad and I left out early in the morning. In two places I actually pulled over the car to a siding and slept for 10 mins.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 06 Nov 2012 14:42

Singha wrote:the rural areas of malaysia and thailand seem to be very law abiding in terms of following traffic rules though no cops for miles and miles...and this inspite of smooth roads, no speedbreakers and some powerful looking souped up pickups and bikes in use by the shaukeen types. give indians such roads and lack of policing and all the yahoos south of leh will be making a beeline to display their F1 driving skills.

is it to do with higher per capita income or some kind of better social sense in general?

the yahoos who drive rashly here are not all uneducated or poor - far from it. neither is malaysia or thailand very rich or uber educated. for balance one is buddhist and the other muslim so no religious bias either.

bangkok has massive traffic jams in CBD every evening, you can literally walk on the footpath faster than traffic, but no evidence of the lane cutting and trying to squeeze into every crack like here.

nowhere in the world have I see the kind of road behaviour that is the norm in india - but I have not been to BD, TSP, SL or anywhere in africa yet.

Right in the middle of the "west" is New York, it has to be understood why driving there is so bad as well. One gora colleague had the theory that most of the cab folks are immigrants from "foreign" so that explains it.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Nov 2012 15:04

parts of the ORR and the muddy lanes/roads leading off it are so bad after the rains and lack of cops the onlee thing missing from making it mogadishu is the absense of toyota pickup 'techical' trucks mounted with HMGs and some random yahoos firing AK56 from the rooftoops. its that kind of 'mixed' scene with traffic moving in all directions randomly.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 06 Nov 2012 16:40

Except for the KSTRC multi-axles, none of the other buses (a/c sleepers)could protect me from rough rides on the badest of badest roads on the planet. wtf is wrong with our loop hole ringed setup? when are we planning at the very least for this? we can't just be blaming politicians, et al. any one care to do a hazare on this?

Zynda · Post by **Zynda** » 07 Nov 2012 02:42

Singha wrote:parts of the ORR and the muddy lanes/roads leading off it are so bad after the rains and lack of cops the onlee thing missing from making it mogadishu is the absense of toyota pickup 'techical' trucks mounted with HMGs and some random yahoos firing AK56 from the rooftoops. its that kind of 'mixed' scene with traffic moving in all directions randomly.

^

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 10 Nov 2012 11:52

Singha wrote:parts of the ORR and the muddy lanes/roads leading off it are so bad after the rains and lack of cops the onlee thing missing from making it mogadishu is the absense of toyota pickup 'techical' trucks mounted with HMGs and some random yahoos firing AK56 from the rooftoops. its that kind of 'mixed' scene with traffic moving in all directions randomly.

Gurgaon is in same category.There are stretches here where roads are completely washed off and you can actually start farming.

Delhi and Noida are better though

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 10 Nov 2012 18:39

the bellandur lake in blr used to be a clean 2000acre lake 50 yrs ago, stretching upto the runway of the HAL airport. due to creeping encroachments from all sides, its highly polluted today with 900acre area and very stagnant looking water, with weeds all over. somehow the connected varthur lake in whitefield has been saved from the ravages by means of a treatment plant in between that seems to clean the mess before it hits varthur (I hope)

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 26 Nov 2012 04:31

happy to see delhi traffic is well behaved in this pic

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Del ... epage=true

but the truth is different perhaps.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 26 Nov 2012 10:09

there is much less density of bikes in delhi due to vast distances, colder and dustier weather, people's "shauk" for cars and safety issues...esp in the office going areas you would not see much of bikes or women on scooties.

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 26 Nov 2012 12:33

about noo york. that theory about immigrants is just plain nonsense.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Nov 2012 07:26

the quality of civil construction in Delhi new roads, flyovers, dividers, sidewalks, service roads is simply much better than bangalore. things are not skimmed down to 20cm, which means inspite of corruption, a lot of officials are doing a proper job of atleast ensuring standards are adhered to. I dont know if they spent more money per KM but thats unlikely as the indian road congress stds are supposed to be universal.

someone can do a delhi vs mumbai comparison , but looking at the ORR work near my house and the works in delhi, there is no comparison between delhi and bangalore.I am talking of the normal parts of delhi (not lutyens delhi) and adjacent areas like noida and ghaziabad.

we have flyovers being built here infront of giant tech parks like RMZ ecospace (and soon +RMZ Ecoworld), with one lane service roads on the sides for the workers to enter and leave !

and some part of these service lanes is always under digging with agencies laying cables or digging small drains on a cottage industry basis.

ORR is worthy of a case study in how not to develop high density office and residential corridors. and while rich patricians of JP Nagar, Jayanagar and Malleswaram may snigger at this situation, let me assure them they are going to get hit as well with 1 hr of additional commute even if they reside in these better planned areas but work in ORR . everyone suffers.

whitefield is also no less of a mess - lakhs of jobs and small roads that were not built big when they had a golden chance a few years ago. the approaches to whitefield from all sides are weak and narrow.

vina · Post by **vina** » 27 Nov 2012 18:24

ORR is worthy of a case study in how not to develop high density office and residential corridors. and while rich patricians of JP Nagar, Jayanagar and Malleswaram may snigger at this situation, let me assure them they are going to get hit as well with 1 hr of additional commute even if they reside in these better planned areas but work in ORR . everyone suffers.

.

Well, the metro seems to be well on the way to completion by the timeline (at least most of the pillars and girders and basic civil works seem to be in place) and today I noticed metro folks digging along the medians of the Marenahalli stretch of the inner ring road in the stretch from JP Nagar to Jayadeva flyover , for the metro stretch from Jayanagar to E-City.

So all piss and plogress onree. We will take the metro to go downtown and to e-city. ORR stretch from Jayadeva etc will come in due course.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 Nov 2012 22:49

That stretch from Jayanagar to E-city is USD 1B onlee. Now, when is the metro RoI estimated to be?

Asit P · Post by **Asit P** » 28 Nov 2012 02:39

Road from Kolkata to China's Kunming city?

India and China have concluded talks on the proposed land corridor that would pass through Myanmar and connect Kolkata with southwestern China's Kunming city in Yunnan province. Negotiations on the issue had resumed after three years.

Foreign ministry officials from the two countries participated in the talks along with officials from West Bengal and Yunnan last week in Kunming . An action plan approved after the negotiations pledged "to strive for an effective land corridor between Kunming and Kolkata" . Officials said different possibilities for enhancing road and trade connectivity between the Chinese province, India's northeast and Bengal were discussed.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 381774.cms

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 28 Nov 2012 03:32

Singha wrote:tI dont know if they spent more money per KM but thats unlikely as the indian road congress stds are supposed to be universal.

Typo or a Fruedian slip?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Nov 2012 09:23

their website is down, but here is one of their annual meeting websites
http://www.73irccoimbatore.in/

top civil engineers and PWD officials from all states participate in these meetings and come back with thick files and technical documents. one of my uncle was a chief engr PWD roads dept in home state. I used to spend some time in his home office going over and trying to understand these files and drawings

though on the surface india is pure anarchy at its best, there is a working steel frame of the republic in the background and people , whether poorly paid or not, doing their work relatively honestly and not abandoning their post for foreign vacations and wheeling dealing unlike the political turds.