The Indian Road Experience: Challenges and Possibilities

Driving on Indian roads is a harrowing experience. Ambitious agenda of road and infrastructure improvement is a priority of governments at the centre as well as in the states. While various amendments have been made to the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act 2014, harsh punishments alone will not resolve the issues affecting the Indian roads. This is an attempt at explaining the various critical elements affecting our road experience without getting too technical about it.

Overall surface transportation is a much wider subject and holistic development agenda driven by public transport is outside the purview of this article. We will restrict our thought to roads. There are few stakeholders and let's discuss what stakeholders can do better to improve road experiences.

1. Road Planners and designers e.g. National Highway Authority of India, various state governments, public work departments, district development authorities.
2. Road Builders e.g. Highway and Road design Engineers, construction companies, BOT (Build, Own and Operate) contractors.
3. Vehicle Manufacturers e.g. bike car and heavy vehicle companies.
4. Enforcement agencies e.g. local transport police and highway transport authorities.
5. Road users like us.