Indian Roads, Here today – Gone tomorrow due to age old techniques

Ever wondered why Indian roads are the ‘pits’ (no pun intended), well, Indian roads have a history of being here today and disappearing tomorrow. The only reason for this is that the Indian government follows age old techniques all with no long term success rate. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is working on Road Safety Analysis and is welcoming participation through an opinion poll on Road Safety, especially to identify of Black Spots (Accident Prone Area).

Still not learning a lesson for the dismal condition of Indian roads, the Government is quick to undertake extensive road construction programs. Thousands of kilometers of roads are under construction with equally extensive and adventurous plans for the future. However, the technology used in road construction is outdated and ineffective though technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. The Indian Government still resorts to outdated measures due to lack of initiative, trained personnel or technical expertise. Machines imported have been underutilized and there exists an urgent need to recognize and upgrade.

The use of new technologies needs to be researched, use of a combination of polyethylene and bitumen needs to be tested which is supposed to offer better durability of road surfaces. Road developers and consultants are still toying with the idea of implementing these advanced and more modern technologies which have proved their worth in China where the use of recycled aggregate material is used for road construction. India still depends on aggregate from rocks and blasting is done on a large scale to procure this material hampering the environment even further.