After a hectic day of meetings there, Kumar was back at the Kolkata airport by 8.30 pm, and soon heading home to Durgapur, in time to be with his family for a slightly late dinner at 11 pm. "Making it to Agartala in a day and back would have been unthinkable even three years back when commute time to Kolkata itself used to take anywhere between five to seven hours," he says.
That's history. The four-laned National Highway No 2 or Durgapur Expressway has cut travel time to Kolkata by almost half. Many now prefer to drive down, while others take a Volvo bus to Esplanade, Kolkata's Central Business District. "I don't remember taking a train to Kolkata in the last two years," says Anand Raj of Venky Hi-tech Ispat, which manufactures TMT bars in Durgapur's Bamunara Industrial Area.
The highway, part of the Golden Quadrilateral corridor linking the four metros, has played a key role in changing the fortunes of this steel city. The upswing in steel prices over the last three years has brought in hordes of private entrepreneurs to Durgapur. This key highway, no doubt, has played a vital role.
The success of the 5,846-km Golden Quadrilateral and the ongoing 7,300-km North-South, East-West corridors, however, belie the reality of largely-decrepit road infrastructure. For a reality check, one just has to travel to Bellary, Karnataka.
It takes around six hours to reach the iron-ore rich city, some 350 km away from Bangalore. The first 200-km stretch over National Highway No. 4--the Bangalore-Tumkur road--can be covered in two-and-a-half hours. But the next 150-odd km is a bumpy stretch--laced with speed-breakers, unending streams of ore-laden trucks and innumerable rocky un-tarred patches--that takes over three hours. In fact, industrialists like Sajjan Jindal, owner of JSW Steel's Vijayanagar unit in the city, have simply decided to give the roads a miss and have instead started taking the aerial route.
In large parts of the country, rural and feeder roads have nowhere to be seen, especially as one goes deeper into the hinterland. Less than 50% of roads are paved, says a World Bank report on India's dismal road infrastructure. Most roads do not even withstand one good monsoon.
Click on "Full Story" for more...
By Sumit Kumar, Section Indian Economy
Posted on Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 03:51:53 AM EST
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One way to attract private players could be to allow them to develop real estate on both sides of the road. That, however, is easier said than done. Land acquisition, removal of existing structures, shifting of utilities and environmental clearances are major roadblocks that stand in their way.
Revamping infrastructure
It is not just roads; virtually every facet of infrastructure--ports, power, airports--needs a complete revamp. Manufacturers take days to transport goods across the country, average turnaround time at busy seaports is 85 hours (10 times longer than at Singapore or Hong Kong) and airports run short of warehouse space.
"Infrastructure is not the last area one develops in an era of great economic progress. It is, at the very least, an essential part, and often, a prior condition for great transformation," says Nagesh Kumar, Director-General, RIS, a government-funded economic think-tank.
For India to sustain a 9%-plus annual growth rate, revamping the already-inadequate infrastructure is the key. The country's gross domestic product would be two percentage points higher if the country had robust infrastructure, says Jagdish N Bhagwati, Professor, Columbia University.
The Economic Survey 2007-08 is categorical that the country needs to spend some $500 billion to boost infrastructure. "The development of adequate infrastructure is a critical prerequisite for sustaining the growth momentum," the survey notes. Some 30% of this is likely to come from private firms, the survey forecasts.
Already, many sectors, including aviation, are poised to reap the benefits of increased spending. The government plans to invest some $9 billion into aviation infrastructure by 2010. Two private-sector consortia are redeveloping the Delhi and Mumbai airports, greenfield airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad are already operational and modernisation efforts at the Chennai and Kolkata airports should soon take off.
Even in smaller cities, airports are getting a face-lift. The new terminal at the Mangalore airport (now an international one with flights to the Gulf) is expected to be ready by March, 2009. "We are planning an air cargo complex at the old terminal. We intend to export agro-based products from this complex," says K Narasimha Prabhu, President, Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In mining-town Bellary, a small private airport--now open for commercial services--connects Bangalore twice a day. The state government is now looking to upgrade another defunct airport there and dedicate it for private use.
Across the country, fleet expansion is also going on in full swing. Indian carriers currently have a total fleet size of 310 aircraft, and they have ordered a further 480 planes for delivery by 2012. Again, several new private sector airlines have been granted licenses to operate.
Source: Outlook Business 28th June Edition,
The road not taken
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