Chachu's column #13: Of Roads, Rails, and Safety

As the saying goes - A picture says a thousand words - I found one such picture in the latest issue of Business World (23rd Sep, 2002). It was a picture of the Mumbai-Pune expressway that looked like a giant serpent snaking its way to some place beyond the horizon. At three different glances, the picture evoked three distinct feelings. At first glance, I found the expressway quite awe-inspiring. The expressway was state-of-art six-lane highway. On closer look, I found an over-turned truck right in the middle of the picture. Given the fact that the Business World cover story was meant to highlight the rapid developments of highway in India, the over-turned truck didn't give the right signals. Since the traffic moved at great speeds on the expressway, the truck over-turned was a potential traffic hazard. On even closer inspection, I found that the truck was cordoned off by appropriate signs and roadblocks thereby giving motorists adequate time and space to avoid the truck. The last point was quite satisfying indeed. An adequate proof that India's traffic management paradigms were moving in the right direction.

But Pune is far far away from Delhi suburb where I reside. Around my house, there are no signs of state-of-the-art technological developments. Nor is it visible in my commute to my workplace. This despite the fact that a major part of my route lies within the country's capital Delhi. In fact, the way things are, there seems to be no state government and no art in the madness. Everyday, I encounter a number of potential situations that could lead to accidents, major or minor. While a comprehensive list could run into pages, let me list four important ones:

1. On a long empty stretch of road without any road divider or central verge, there is a speed breaker that extends only half the breadth. This awful design implies that one side of traffic moves without breaking, while other side is forced to cross the ill-designed breaker. Ideally, this is not a bad situation. But, and a big but, as there is no road divider the unfortunate motorists, in order to avoid the breaker, come on the wrong side displaying their headlights seeking permission to cross. This breach of rule is not limited to motorcycles or cars (yours truly included), but also includes buses and trucks. One day, no wonder I found a badly smashed car near the breaker.

2. Another serious breach of traffic rules is overloading by shuttle operators. They have found unique ways of carrying more passengers than the load the jeeps can take. For one, they extend the rear and sides so that people can stand on them and hang around. Then, they also fit a carrier on top of the jeep that is then used to seat around 8-10 people atop the jeep. Seeing people on the train top is not unusual (seeing them dance, like in the song in Dil Se, is exhilarating), but seeing them sit precariously on a jeep is really unnerving. The most bizarre part of this drama is that the overloaded jeeps have to cross the Delhi-Haryana border where police continuously monitor the traffic movement. But I have never seen anyone questioning the errant drivers. In fact, once when we were nine of us were going to office in a Qaulis, we were caught and challaned because the Qaulis had license to carry only 8.  While the inspector demanded something for tea, not willing to file a challan, an overloaded jeep carrying around twenty people crossed us. For the inspector, nor the jeep nor the violation existed. His monthly premium was already paid by the jeep driver. Only when he extracted his quota from us did he leave us. Once, tired of being daily witness to the violation, I logged on to the site (http://www.delhitrafficpolice.nic.in/witness.htm) and lodged a complaint. The site did not offer any means for the complainant to track the progress of the complaint. The complaint was lodged by me long time back. Needless to say, the overloading continues unchecked, unstopped, and unseen. And only God or Delhi traffic police knows what happened to my complaint. Given the state of affairs, one day, and the day may not be far, one of the many such jeeps that ply will meet a serious accident and twenty will die. The newspaper will then say - "Twenty killed in an accident due to overloading". And then the routine enquiry followed by routing analysis. And within months, if not days, the file will be dumped in some public office and the soul of the dead will live in peace.

3. As monsoon ends, the roads have cracked and pot-holes have become the order of the day. The methods adopted for repairing the roads is so outdated and abysmal that one wonders whether we are in the twenty-first century or in the early ages. The pot-holes are first left to fester so that water can stagnate and eat the road. When the holes are big enough to cause a flutter, small stones are used to fill them. To hold the stones together, soil is used. It is no-brainer that a fresh spell of rains washes away the soil. What remains is a situation that is worse than one that existed before repairs. When the situation becomes beyond control, the road rollers are brought in. In the process, the height of road keeps rising and comes in level of the footpath.

4. Talking about footpath, the less said about them the better. Suffice it to say that there is no bigger loot than the encroachment of public land by shopkeepers, residents, et al. Even the non-performing assets may pale in comparison to the loss of revenue due to encroachments. It is disheartening that no one bothers to keep the footpaths free for people to walk. The end result is that the poor pedestrians walk on the roads making them vulnerable to the fast moving traffic.
 
The threats mentioned above are not imaginary. The terrible Rajdhani train accident few days back highlights the utter neglect of safety in public movement. 120 people, supposedly well-to-do, perished in the accident. But the event was taken in a matter-of-factly way. The more accidents happen in India, the more they lose their relevance. It is like listening to news "BSE catches cold as NASDAQ sneezes; Two more die in fresh violence in Vadodra, CM blames Abu Salem who was caught in Portugal early this morning; Death toll in Rajdhani reaches 120."

In an interesting article "Cracks in the Tracks" (see http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/19dilip.htm), the writter Dilip D'Souza highlighted how a small accident in Britain that killed only four people played havoc in the minds of the people. "The accident led to a national soul-searching that went beyond just rail accidents. How had this happened, how could it be prevented, what is the malaise with the rail system the world once envied? In fact, what is the malaise with the British themselves? The unsettling impression grew of Britain as an unsound country, weakly equipped, under-skilled, easily made chaotic and only superficially modern; an incompetent society. It was this, even more than the toll in the accident that got the English talking. What had happened to this advanced country, one that had once been the mightiest industrial and military power the world had ever seen, one that itself took the railway to large swathes of the world? Was it now really no more than an "incompetent society"?"

The bitching and cribbing can continue on and on. But I will stop here and come back to the original topic with which we started. The highway revolution started by PM Vajpayee and monitored by Major General B. B. Khanduri, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways is going to be one of the biggest achievements of NDA government. With a staggering investment of 54,000 crore, India will have 5846km of Golden Quadilateral and 7300km of North-South-East-West built by the end of 2007. And for once, the work is going to finish before schedule. 
Chachu  (23/9/2002)
Reader Comments Received On The Above Article

** 1 ** The points you have raised are more or less same for North India. I donno much about the Southern part but I have heard that there people are more desciplined and law abiding. In fact, BEST in Bombay is the best example how a public transport service can work efficiently. And people in Bombay do line up to take the bus (without jumping the queue). Howeve, here in Delhi , no rule exists. Blue line buses stop anywhere, they are overloaded , some time charge more than the ususal fare and what not. The question is who can stop this? I had had long discussion with a friend of mine and in my view first the people should start to stop things like this. But, my friend's opinion was different , accroding to him, Govt should stop this by making and implementing these rules. I think most of the Indians think the same way , Govt should do some thing for them. To be continued ..in my next mails. (Courtesy Shailesh Vyas)

** 2 ** Read this article of yours. The text version makes it more palatable to read. Lots of interesting information. You are my gateway to India Today. (Courtesy Narendra Singhal)

** POST-MORTEM ** Two incidents, two very recent events, corroborate the fact that very little attention is paid in India on the safety and security on surface transport. The first incident was experienced by my friend on his way to office. During his commute, he found four crushed cars, one after the other. If this disturbing accident was not enough, he found his car being followed by a lady who was in remarkable hurry to overtake his car. While there was very little space to overtake, the lady kept honking and irritating my friend. When space was provided, the lady overtook but not without my friend cursing that her behaviour could result in the same accident as he had encountered earlier. His premonition proved to be true, when barely a kilometer later, he found the same lady's car squashed between two other cars. That day, seven cars were sacrificed within a space of three kilometers for various reasons. And that loss was only what my friend observed. Infinitely more number of accidents happen in India and even a greater number can happen. (This incident would have been the end of the Post-mortem had not I been witness to something similar. It was an ordaniry drive to my office when I saw a big crevice, almost two feet deep, on a major road. What surprised me was that there was no indication or blocks to prevent casual drivers from damaging their cars. For a moment I felt the urge to get down and put blockade around the crack. But given the fact that I think much more than I do, I ignored the crevice and moved ahead. In the evening, when I was returning from office, I found a car stuck in that same crevice. The sight made me guilty; guilty because I was also a party to the neglect; almost as guilty as all those who saw the hole and chose to ignore. The incident reminds me of the story that we read when we were young. The story was of a King who put a big boulder on the road and hid behind a tree to see the reaction of his people. Some persons avoided the boulder while others got hurt. But no one bothered to remove the stone. Finally, it was left for a young boy, who was too small to move the stone, to make the first move. The king helped the boy to remove the stone and also awarded the boy. Needless to say, a lot remains for us to remember, and even greater to imbibe.)

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