Postcard from India Highway to (Economic) Heaven
Telephone cables and high-speed Internet connections may have fuelled India's rise to " back-office of the world ," but connecting New Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Mumbai with some 5,800 kilometers of four- to six-lane highway is expected to keep an economy roaring that has already enjoyed an average of 6.8 percent growth each year over the past decade.
The National Highway Development Project was conceived in 1998, shortly after a Hindu-led nationalist government took over. And since then-prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee laid the foundation stone in 1999, legions of low-wage laborers have been hired to expand old stretches of motorway as they build the "Golden Quadrilateral" highway. Asphalt is scheduled to be rolled out, and within the next 15 years, some 65,000 kilometers of roads will be modernized, providing India with a modern network of motorways and roads.
In 1991 India began liberalizing its economy, and a country that for centuries moved in pace with the gentle flow of the Ganges River embarked on its first steps towards the western notion of civilization based on speed, efficiency and economic growth. The current modernization took inspiration from the United States, where the construction of a highway system in the 1920s and 1950s paved the way for world economic domination. India is hoping its modern highway network will have the same beneficial economic effects.
