Mumbai Traffic and “Mera Bharat Mahaan”*
Earlier this week, my optimism about the infrastructure situation in India (see e.g. this) took a severe beating as I struggled to get to a meeting in downtown Mumbai crawling through what seemed like an endless chaos of traffic and road construction.
** Don’t get me wrong - I’m usually very charitable about these things…(and of course India is a weak spot!) but what really got me was not the 1hr 40min drive - I was far luckier than almost everyone else on that journey, travelling in comfort and not having to make this trip everyday - but the appalling loss of productivity and the drain on energy caused by this.
As I sat watching the stop-start-stop pattern around me, I could not but help thinking how these infrastructural bottlenecks were making the whole system terribly inefficient…roads and traffic are not the only problem, Mumbai is also facing a severe power shortage as I write this.
I was also in Bangalore and New Delhi a few days back - and although both these cities have their share of infrastructure woes, I am afraid Mumbai’s traffic problem has snowballed over the last few years.
When I mentioned about this to some friends, the response I got was: “Its not so bad because everyone factors it in while planning their day; we know its bad” 
Some more thought suggested that at least one reason why people may not get as agitated as I did could be because they use the time to make phone calls and generally catch up (if they are travelling with someone). In fact, for politicians and businessmen, giving interviews-on-the-go is becoming more & more common as commute takes up an increasingly bigger chunk of a productive day.
And yet I remain hopeful….as the old slogan goes, Mera Bharat Mahaan!
.
* loose translation: “My India is Great”!
** Image Courtesy: http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~kildea/india05/india05-tab.htm
[...] Globalization and Venture Capital: Earlier this week, my optimism about the infrastructure situation in India took a severe beating as I struggled to get to a meeting in downtown Mumbai crawling through what seemed like an endless chaos of traffic and road construction….what really got me was not the 1hr 40min drive - I was far luckier than almost everyone else on that journey, travelling in comfort and not having to make this trip everyday - but the appalling loss of productivity and the drain on energy caused by this. [...]
Pingback by Traffic In India - A Functioning Anarchy » Odd Culture | June 26, 2008
Great blog, subscribed to your rss feed. Thanks.
Comment by Psychic Advice | July 13, 2008
boo.india is awsome
Comment by Amber | August 28, 2008