MEMO FROM NARA

Countries have to think of good roads as the best infrastructure. Developed countries of the world realized this long ago and paved good roads all over. As a result, transportation increased and movement of goods and people from one place to another was accelerated. Settlement of people came on either side of those roads. Developing countries, by looking at those developments started thinking about the good roads for their own economic progress. Bad roads are there everywhere, paved or unpaved. Pot holes, speed breakers, damages in patches, narrow ones are the status of roads in many developing countries including India.

Allotment of budget for this vital sector is thought of only recently to link north to south and east to west of India. Huge amounts of money is required to make the already existing narrow roads to four lane ones. Mostly the World Bank loans are availed for this purpose. Highways/motorways have to be improved to the level of the ones we find in developed nations. They are going to be the lifeline of a nation. Good roads have to be maintained frequently to give a better service to the users. Bad roads cause fatal road accidents very often. The traffic police take lots of measures to prevent road accidents. If the roads are bad, they will be helpless to implement those measures.

Effective steps have to be taken to lay good roads with signboards and proper lighting. Design engineers are responsible for laying good roads for the country. The system of construction through corrupt practice makes the proposal for good roads, a mediocre one. Within a short period after the construction, the roads become unusable, and such is the situation in most regions of our country – India. There are experienced construction companies in India who laid very good roadways in other countries, but they are generally ignored by the politicians. They cannot get their required commission from such reputed companies. Therefore the development is poor and our progress in road infrastructure is retarded to a considerable extent. India being one of the important growing giants in the world certainly needs good roads throughout the length and breadth of the country. Four thousand years ago the ancient cities of Mesopotamia was paved with stone. That was the first man-made roads.

Later, Roman roads formed the most extensive network in Europe and Middle East. The motorways of the 20^th century are built on a firm, thick base of pebbly material with a layer of concrete laid over top. Above this is a layer of tar or rolled asphalt. Rubberized roads are also coming up in certain regions in India. Even plastic wastes are also mixed with tar and applied on the top of the road. Innovative road building techniques are invented and applied wherever possible. 

A country which managed with single lane roads for seventy long years after independence realize today the necessity of this important infrastructure on which many other developments depend. National highways connecting various states help in interstate business, transportation of goods and people. In fact, India is moving towards the dream of a developed nation.

While making good roads, there are many hurdles the country has to face. Towns and cities have to be connected by roads of short distances. So the interfering structures have to be removed or demolished. Sometimes rivers have to be crossed, so bridges have to be constructed. The engineering technologies have improved so much that constructing various kinds of bridges is possible nowadays. Wide roads were made in town and cities, but the paved roads are only half the width of the planned roads. Avenue trees occupy some area on either side of the road. Similarly the electric and telephone poles also take away some space. Unauthorized constructions like projection of roof structures by the shops on either side steal away some space. As a result we will be left with a narrow road in the cities for the vehicles to pass by. It is really sad to see such bad roads in many parts of India. Every time the local administration tries to remove the unauthorized occupations, there will be resistance from the public who are affected. They go the extent of filing a case against the administration in the court and stay the work. We know the court takes its own time to clear such cases. Another set of people who get the votes of these people also support them and will not allow the administration to do its job. Thus road remains as it was. We have seen many times such sights in every town. In a democratic country with about 40% illiterates, it becomes difficult to interfere with peoples’ proper or improper activities. It is one the reasons that India could not progress fast and reach the status of a developed nation. With all these limitations, India has a hope to come up in the Global level as a developed nation with good roads in the near future.