Though it seems highly unlikely, India’s economy has a new antagonistic presence – that of the country’s throbbing veins – the road network. The plans to expand and strengthen the national highways have so far been over ambitious. Even today, as India strengthens its presence as an international trade entity, the internal trade suffers because of poor quality roads and a sordid state of affairs as far as the national highways are concerned.
A brief look at statistics simply reasserts the worst. While in developed countries, goods carrying trucks are able to cover about 800 km per day, Indian trucks are only able to cover about 350 Km per day on an average. This is because the roads are so bad that the average speed is a mere 20 Km/hr.
There has been some development in this regard. However, poor road conditions continue to wreak havoc for those whose livelihood depends on transportation of goods. Besides the low speed, there are also delays at every checkpoint where not only are truck drivers detained indefinitely, but money is also demanded of them.
A recent study has shown that every year the economy loses out on about $600 million because of the constant delays. This however is not all. One can add about $5 million that is wasted in terms of fuel because of the stoppages and the slow speed.
The volumes of the freight keeps on increasing by about 9.06% every year. However, as compared to the increase in the volume, only about 3.77% of roads are added to contain the volume every year.
