Whither Development: Jaipur Delhi Highway

Some paths are prescribed for you! Or a certain school of philosophers would say, all your paths are pre-ordained and you are but pretending to choose and travel. At a more rational level, they might even concede that your destination is predetermined, no matter what path the rational, free thinking homo-sapiens might tread. But hey, I talk of more mundane things, unnecessarily meandering into philosophy. 

So my path is chosen. Was chosen. Some three and a half decades back I started my road trips between Delhi and Jaipur. First, as a student and then as an officer. Invariably one chose the Road transport services between the National and the State capital. As a student, one was lucky to find a seat in a passenger bus when returning home during vacations, while parents funded the return journey by Deluxe buses-a huge psychological difference, as the quality of one didn't differ much from the other! Gentry did! Higher tariff just to ensure you didn't have to rub shoulders with the Sarvahara ! Some years passed and you had the AC Deluxe buses, which were a relief in sultry summers, but as homes were still largely cooled by desert-coolers, and hostel rooms by whirring ceiling fans, dependent on voltage to catch speed, or noisy Cinni pedestal fans, the end of journey in an AC bus often left you sneezing and coughing with allergic symptoms! 

Wheels of time kept turning; progression became a sine quo non of life and you had the imported Volvo buses, replete with reclining seats, plush leatherette comfort, velvet curtains et al to make the journey more comfortable! In the meanwhile the passenger car segment of industry had a boom period and the Indian middle classes found their Hyundais, Fords, Toyotas, in addition to the ubiquitous Maruti, to succumb to the wander-lust. I too started using my car to complete my essential "pilgrimages" to Delhi and JAIPUR, hoping to derive a certain solitary pleasure from the experience. 

So what was happening to the NH in these phases? From a single road in early 1980s, it was turned into a dual carriageway soon thereafter! Before you realised it, this was being re-converted into a four lane Highway and now a 6 lane one! Well, development of Road transport was complete! Fast Luxurious, comfortable buses or six seater, Station wagon style cars/SUVs and 6 lane highways! Stuff dreams are made of! A distance of 270 Kms with international quality Transport should be done in 3 hours!, one could very well hope! Unfortunately NO! 

With development all around, the time taken to travel this distance remains 5 to 6 hours on a good, medium traffic day! On a bad day it can be as long as 8 hours! The road which had earned the dubious distinction of a virtual "death-trap", due to the large number of fatal accidents it caused, hasn't done much to dispose off this reputation! 

Travelling to JAIPUR during an off-peak, weekday recently, after the demonetisation decision, I noticed much lesser traffic, which my driver was quick to point out was an "aberration" due to the currency crunch! That should have ensured a quicker traversing of the 270 km distance. But no, several bottlenecks, dug up roads for further widening and temporary by-passes, slow moving traffic like two wheelers, tractors, even camel-carts ensured it continued to be a roller coaster ride as it was during the single-road days and time taken on a virtually deserted highway was still 5 hours! During all these decades, I remember a single occasion in early 1990s,during a Transporters' strike, when it took me just over three hours to cover the distance between my two pilgrim centres! Almost similarly deserted roads this week, a quarter century later, but time taken was 5 hours+! One reason why we want bigger, better roads and faster, modern transport is to conserve resources: time, energy, man hours! But it hasn't happened! The road is forever dug up, access control has never been attempted, accidents continue to be fatal---I saw quite a few on the highway, a motorcyclist crushed under a truck, a car burning to blazes--and time taken continues to be THE SAME! As it was in 1980s!
Whither Development???