Equality, Indian style!

February, 2012.

Location: NH 87 (Rampur/Uttar Pradesh to Rudrapur/Uttarakhand)

Rudrapur/Pant Nagar has emerged as one of the new industrial hubs in northern India.  You name top notch India Inc members, they have set up manufacturing plants in this north Indian town. Sidcul, the state-owned industrial devleopment company, has done a wonderful job in creating the right kind of industrial climate.

Yet...

The road linking Rampur on NH 24 (Delhi to Lucknow) to Rudrapur/Pant Nagar through NH87 is pathetic. I must have travelled in this stretch multiple times over the past two years. Nothing seems to have changed over this period.

For instance, look at the above image. Not only the highway is narrow, but plenty of obstacles. In the form of free roaming buffaloes in the middle. Look at the images below:

Loaded heavy commercial vehicles are parked on both sides of the supposedly 4-lane carriageway, thus further blocking space for moving vehicles.

Look at this: the lanes separator on NH87 where plants/shrubs should have been grown both for aesthetic reasons as well as to cut down the harsh headlights of commercial vehicles and others in dark or night, these patches are "deployed" to make cow dung cakes which are used as fuel by pavement dwellers.

Look at the way the NYK Container Trailer is parked on NH87. Had it been parked parallel to the highway it would have been better. But it is not, forcing other drivers to steer their vehicles onto the wrong side.

As a nation, by and large, we don't have any sense of traffic discipline.