[sustran] Text of Guardian Article on "modern" transport in India

Lee Schipper SCHIPPER at wri.org
Wed May 3 18:14:18 JST 2006


Thanks Sunny. Er um, I failed to see a single mention of the NMT users cut off by these roads, of the many who will be killed by heavy vehicles running them off the roads (oops, the government forgot to build parallel roads between Delhi and Agra for normal speed transport)....and of the way this focus on commerce without social impacts may cost more than its obvious economic benefits.

or, when will they ever learn?


>>> sksunny at gmail.com 5/3/2006 12:51:18 AM >>>
Dear Lee and Friends,

I learnt from Lee's mail that he could not access the link, so please 
find the news below

Sunny

*India** is on the road to a transport revolution*

Huge efforts are being made to improve the country's infrastructure

*Randeep Ramesh in Pune
Tuesday May 2, 2006
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>*

When Yohan Poonawalla took delivery of the first Rolls-Royce Phantom 
sold in India last year, the car was everything that he was promised. 
Inside the 2.5-tonne, 20ft vehicle was a hand-crafted walnut dashboard 
featuring a humidor. The tinted windows had electronically controlled 
curtains. Open the doors and out popped a silver-handled umbrella.

But the £500,000 vehicle's first miles in the country were traumatic for 
Mr Poonawalla. Picking it up from Mumbai, the 34-year-old scion of a 
wealthy industrial family had to drive the car to his home in Pune, 
180km away. Despite its immense power - the Phantom zooms from 0 to 
62mph in under six seconds - the car slowly picked its way through the 
maze of Mumbai's decrepit backstreets and gridlocked intersections.

"Taking it out [of Mumbai] was not easy. You had cows; people on the 
streets. There was no other way to get the car home. All I could think 
about was just watch out for the car," Mr Poonawalla recalls. "It was 
the longest hour I have ever spent behind the wheel."

It was not until he made it out of the city that Mr Poonawalla finally 
found a road decent enough to drive his Rolls on. "The expressway is as 
good as any road in Europe. It was my first chance to really see how the 
car handles and travels."

What Mr Poonawalla experienced are the first fruits of India's roads 
revolution, which has helped propel the country's economic annual growth 
past 8%. The six lanes running from Mumbai to Pune are part of the 
3,650-mile Golden Quadrilateral highway, which is the largest 
infrastructure project undertaken since the country became independent 
in 1947.

The expressways form a diamond linking Delhi with the country's three 
other largest cities: Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta. On schedule to be 
completed this year and within its £4bn budget, the Golden Quadrilateral 
marks the beginning of more than £35bn of road projects.

For anyone accustomed to India and the haphazard way things happen, the 
country's new motorways are nothing short of a miracle.

*Dramatic shift*

"We had to link the country up. This was a mission of the greatest 
importance for the economy," said BC Khanduri, who was minister of roads 
from 2000 to 2004. A retired major general in the Indian army 
engineering corps, he cracked down on corruption and delay.

"Look we gave deadlines and made sure people met them. There were 
penalties for poor performance and bonuses for those who delivered on 
time," said Mr Khanduri. "My idea was to say good infrastructure could 
be built in India too."

Many point out that the initiative to create a high-speed road network 
was sorely needed as the nation's antiquated transport links were 
cutting deep into profits and slowing economic growth.

The comparison with China is a poor one. India's northern neighbour 
focused early on building up its infrastructure, especially its network 
of arterial routes. During the 1990s Beijing spent £18bn a year on 
expanding its expressways - 10 times the amount Delhi managed. The 
result is that highways, which move four-fifths of all goods transported 
in India, account for only about 2% of the country's roads.

Ports, too, are a problem. On average it takes 85 hours to unload and 
reload a ship at India's major ports, 10 times longer than in east Asia.

"Historically speaking, roads in India have been starved of funds and, 
even worse, their maintenance has been sorely neglected," says NK Singh, 
a former government adviser. But Mr Singh says there has been a dramatic 
shift in thinking since 2000, with spending on infrastructure this year 
rising by 24%.

The arrival of smoother, wider roads in India has had an immediate, 
visible effect: the start of the Indian public's love affair with the 
motor car. The potential has barely been tapped, say analysts, who point 
out that though 40 million Indians can afford a car there are only 7.5m 
cars on the country's roads.

Motor manufacturers have begun to take notice. Sales of Ford cars in the 
country are rising at more than 30% a year, leading the company's chief 
executive, William Clay Ford, to remark that India was now a "top priority".

Local carmakers have also moved to ramp up production. The Society of 
Indian Automobile Manufacturers recently released figures showing 
India's vehicle production jumped 13% last year. By 2009 the country 
will account for 8% of global motor industry growth.

While China's rise is scaring India into upgrading its roads network, it 
is Japan's companies that provide an inspiration for India's nascent car 
industry. Maruti began life as an Indian government firm, but is now 
majority owned by Japan's Suzuki. It is also India's biggest motor 
manufacturer. Every morning at just before 7am in the Maruti car plant 
in Gurgaon, an hour's drive out of Delhi, hundreds of workers wearing 
identical green shirts and trousers line up for exercises and sing the 
company song.

Maruti has adopted specific practices - individual production targets, 
company slogans and uniform - to emulate the Japanese commitment to 
quality. The Indian managers take trips to Suzuki's headquarters and 
pepper their conversation with Japanese management speak.

*Natural advantage*

The Gurgaon plant now produces more than 500,000 cars a year and another 
£750m factory is being built in nearby Manesar. Suzuki's Indian sales 
will soon exceed Japan's. The abundance of cheap labour in India means 
Gurgaon's assembly lines are not fully "robotised". "Whereas in Japan we 
would look at 95% robotisation, in India we manage with 70 to 75%. Our 
wage base is cheaper," said Shankar Sanyal, a Maruti manager.

However, this is changing. Rolling off Gurgaon's assembly line is a new 
car, a hatchback called the Swift, which is built in the same way as in 
Japan. In a marked shift, Indian engineers did much of the research and 
development.

The Swift highlights another trend: the emergence of India as a small 
car hub. With government handing out tax incentives, India is now the 
third largest maker of small cars in the world. Sales of hatchbacks in 
India topped 650,000 this year.

The increased activity has given rise to world-class auto-components 
firms, kickstarting a new wave of outsourcing that had Kamal Nath, 
India's trade minister, recently pointing out that while General Motors 
was losing workers in Detroit it was recruiting in India.

The auto-parts industry, too, has sought to emulate Japanese 
competitors. Rane Group, based in Chennai, has sales of £165m and is 
growing at more than 10% a year with exports rising at a faster pace. 
Yet only five years ago the company could not take on foreign 
competitors, scaring away customers with shoddy brakes and valves.

"Our natural advantage is in wage costs. In the past the gap was the 
quality of our products. So we hired Japanese consultants and got them 
to show us where we went wrong," says Babu Laxman, the company chairman.

These are the first signs that the country may be experiencing a boom in 
manufacturing to rival the Chinese. "We do not see Chinese competition 
as our rivals," says Mr Laxman. "It's the Japanese we want to match and 
beat."

*_____________________*

*47 bodies found after bus plunges into lake

Associated Press in Gauhati
Friday April 21, 2006
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>*

At least 47 people died after their bus veered off a road near Sarupeta, 
in Assam, northern India, and plunged into a lake, police said yesterday.

Another 27 passengers from the bus, which reportedly had 80 people on 
board, were injured.

The driver, taking the group to a wedding in Goumura, 100 miles west of 
Gauhati, Assam's capital, appeared to lose control of the vehicle, which 
then swerved off the road, said Bipin Bargohain, a police official.

 

"The bus was pulled out by a crane and all 47 bodies found were trapped 
inside the bus."

The lake was searched for more bodies.

*__________________________*

*High-speed train cuts travel time to Taj Mahal*

*Associated Press in New Delhi
Thursday February 16, 2006
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>*

Tourists can now travel to Agra, site of the Taj Mahal, from the Indian 
capital in less than two hours with the introduction yesterday of a 
95mph-train. Until now, the fastest Indian train reached 75mph.

The train cuts the travel time by 40 minutes on the 125-mile New 
Delhi-to-Agra stretch of rail, said Rajiv Saxena, spokesman for Northern 
Railways. The trip takes more than four hours by road.

The Shatabdi Express will run between New Delhi and Bhopal, stopping in 
Agra. Walls have been built by the track to stop people and stray cattle 
from trespassing, Press Trust of India news agency said.

 




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