Better roads = Better future for states

Roads are not just for fast cars. Roads are the lifeline of any economy. They provide connectivity between producers and consumers, between farms, factories and markets, between people and opportunities. The higher the road density of a region, the more developed it will become.

All this is from a basic course in simple economics. So it is surprising that some state governments still remain laggards in securing the land required to lay the required roads under the national highways programme.

The performance of the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) celebrated national highways programme is being stymied by the inability of state governments to make land available for highways construction.

The Union minister for road transport and highways, Mr Kamal Nath, says that Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are the worst offenders when it comes to making land available for NHAI projects.

Better road connectivity can be a game changer for these laggard states. Consider the enthusiasm with which the developed states have built roads and benefitted.

The Delhi-Mumbai corridor, with improved road and rail connectivity, will further accentuate the regional imbalance in growth unless the states to the east of Delhi buck up and ensure that Centrally funded road and rail projects are implemented quickly.

The less developed states must also invest in state highways and rural roads, funding for which can be accessed from the centre. Development, it must be remembered, travels down the road and the better the roads, the more the development.

NHAI projects, it has to be kept in mind, are almost entirely funded by the Central government or, in case they are of the public private partnership (PPP) type, by grants from the Centre - that is, there is no state government funding that is required.

The benefits, of course, go entirely to the state and there are enough studies that show that one of the single-most important factors in reducing poverty is the connection of
villages by roads, since this is what allows people to travel to get jobs or to sell their produce.

And yet, these states are not able to keep their side of the bargain, which is to help provide the land for the project - the cost of the land, needless to say, will be borne by either the Union government or the PPP contractor.

In Bihar, data released by the NHAI show, the state has helped acquire just 13.3 per cent of the land that is required in the current year, the figure is just 5 per cent for West Bengal and nil for other states like Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. In the event, Nath has said his ministry will ignore these states and will continue to press ahead in other states.

Since most states happen to be those run by Opposition parties, it will be said the ministry is favouring UPA-ruled states. The Opposition-ruled states have only themselves to blame for this.