Gridlocked in the rush to grow
Newspapers have delighted in reporting a 100km traffic jam outside Beijing could last until mid-September. Road construction is the immediate cause for the gridlock, which stretches as far as Inner Mongolia, Chinese officials have said.
For Indian commuters battling a near-daily gridlock in all the big cities, this is an ominous sign of things to come.
India is adding vehicles at an unprecedented pace, with July clocking the highest car sales on record.
China has already overtaken the United States as the biggest auto market, and Indians are splashing out on cars across segments, from the humble Nano to the uber luxury Jaguar sedan.
But India, despite its stated goal of spending some $500 billion in the five years to March 2012 and double that sum over the next five-year period, has failed to build roads to keep up.
Transport Minister Kamal Nath’s promise to build 20 km of road a day is as full of holes as Mumbai’s roads in the monsoon, and plans for improving public transport have been slow off the ground.
Delhi’s Metro is a success story, but needs to cover a far greater distance before it can take the load off the congested roads.
Rail lifeline shows Mumbai commuters no mercy
By Arun George
The agitation by motormen on Mumbai’s suburban railway is not the first the city has seen in recent times.
But it has been among the worst with chaos in the city as people tried to deal with the sudden absence of the arterial transport system.
Even the trial of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the sole gunman arrested in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was not spared. Staff working in the court could not reach on time.
The suburban railway is Mumbai’s lifeline and ferries more than 6 million commuters during peak hours everyday.
Mumbai’s citizens, feted for their resilience, used any and all means to get to their destinations.
Taxi drivers made merry plying passengers from offices to homes. Their good fortune stretched to Tuesday morning.
