The 127-kilometre-long National Highway 200 between Chhattisgarh’s capital of Raipur and the seat of the Bilaspur high court has been under construction for more than 15 years.
Work has been awarded and inaugurated at least three times by now Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari himself. The last was in 2015 when it was decided that the road would be made a six-lane one for the 47 kilometres from Raipur to Simga and a four-lane one till Bilaspur.
Work was awarded for Rs 900 crore to Larsen & Toubro and Punj Lloyd and was supposed to be completed by December 2018. But the pace has been so slow that the Bilaspur high court in September ordered the then National Highways Authority of India
chairman to “travel from Raipur to Bilaspur in a small car to experience for himself the shoddy conditions”.
On the last (reset) deadline of August 15, Punj Lloyd expressed its inability to complete the project before July 2020 – more than 1.5 years late and L&T said it “does not have cement” to finish its section of work. Costs have risen from Rs 900 crore to Rs 1,266 crore and it is likely that even 2020 will not see the road done.
Meanwhile, more than 500 people have died on the same road in the intervening period, at least 50 on one particular square crossing outside Raipur.
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A newly constructed 12-kilometre expressway inside Raipur city is yet to be inaugurated but has taken two lives and caused countless injuries due to what can only be called shoddy construction. The Bhupesh Baghel government has closed the road and announced an inquiry into the Rs 350-crore project. The expressway flyovers have already developed deep cracks and it’s likely that the metal road will have to be re-laid.
The Act
Gadkari says that his new Motor Vehicles Act is supposed to save lives and instil responsibility in drivers by levying heavy fines. What it has done, in fact, is open up street arguments in every town and given the traffic police a new weapon to extract more fines.
“We are held accountable and responsible instantly but there is no accountability in Gadkari’s own system. Till date no one in the country has been held accountable for abysmal quality of work and even more sickeningly, for flouting safety standards while construction is on,” says one Amitabh Chaurasia, a public interest litigation activist who works for road safety.
The Raipur to Karwadha road. Photo: Andrew Percy/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Chaurasia points out that there is no directly visible connection between the quantum of collected fines and improvement in road conditions either.
Chhattisgarh has so far refused to do anything about implementing the new Motor Vehicles (MV) Act.
Gujarat has decided on a reduced fine structure, slashing it by more than 50% while some other states like Bengal and Rajasthan are “studying” what Gujarat has done. Chhattisgarh, on the other hand, says and does nothing.
All the brouhaha over challans elsewhere is alien here.
All the discussion on fines end at “people can’t pay” and all the traffic on the roads remains just as it was: lively and disorganised. “The central MV Act has come into effect. We are awaiting our government’s move in the matter,” says R.K. Vij, additional director general of police.
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Even by small town standards, traffic in Raipur and every town in Chhattisgarh, with the possible exception of Bhilai, is dismal.
The only rule is that there are no traffic rules. The two wheelers have a special mandate to ‘own’ the roads. Traffic police has done everything possible from fines to free distribution of helmets, but nothing has worked.
This is primarily because the road network, openings, crossings, turns and one-ways don’t match the layout of any city. Towns, including Raipur, are all overgrown villages where roads were added as an afterthought. Every driver knows the short cuts and almost no one has the money or inclination to pay. They would rather call an “influential person” when it trouble than follow even the most simple rules.
A town road on the way from Raipur to Karwadha. Photo: Andrew Percy/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
But — and it is a big but — if you have driven in any of the metros, especially Delhi, you may have an idea of what road rage means. But no one has ever heard of road rage in Chhattisgarh. No one, in its recorded history, has ever got into a fisticuff over a dent or push or bad driving. Drivers simply shrug and move on.
Small dents are not to lose sleep over and bad driving is accepted as if it comes with the licence or the vehicle itself. More people manage to die due to drunken driving than they kill with a lack of driving skill. Sometimes a truck is burnt if a bike is hit but no one ever pays attention to an overturned truck unless it is carrying booze.
The liquor problem
There is no reason at all why the MV Act should be implemented then. People are dying on the roads but it would be saner to close down liquor stores than implement the MV Act here.
Even after the Supreme Court order against it, there are liquor vends close to the Highway with clear markings and directions from the main road. Unlike other places in the country, liquor vends here are like a fair ground. It’s never a standalone store. Multiple shops are usually on an open field. Massive sheds house the store. About 30 hand carts surround it, selling everything from soda and water to omelettes and peanuts. There are benches to sit on and perhaps the only things missing are music and balloons. There is enough space to park 1,000 bikes every evening and once the liquor and money has been consumed, the merry men rush on to the roads swinging.
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Despite its election promises, Congress has refused to close down the liquor vends.
The BJP had no intention at all through its 15 years’ rule in which the collections from such vends soared from Rs 400 crore in 2003 to Rs 10,000 crore in 2018. It,, in fact brought in a policy by which all the middlemen were cut and government itself took over the business of procurement and counter sales.
Baghel government has found no reason to intervene in the lucrative policy. All the savings from cheap Re 1 rice has found itself channelled into liquor and motorbikes. While the rest of the country is experiencing a downturn in motor vehicle sales, Chhattisgarh has experienced a 17% rise, especially in the two wheeler segment.
An officer with deep responsibilities says wistfully: “Our people have no money for fines. If we implement the MV Act and hefty fines, liquor trade will suffer and there will be needless unrest.”
That may not be the whole truth but his intention is to point out that fines will not deter vagrant drivers, banning or reducing liquor consumption will.