Ah, so once again we cut the ribbon, light the lamps, and smile for the cameras as our Prime Minister inaugurates ₹11,000 crore worth of highway projects to decongest Delhi! Bravo! The champagne corks must be popping in cement companies and contractors’ offices even as I write this. But pardon me, dear reader, while I ask a simple question: Do we really need broader roads—or just broader minds with narrower egos when we sit behind the wheel?
Because what I’ve seen abroad is this: a simple two-lane highway in Europe or the US works better than our six-lane expressway. Why? Because there, people drive with discipline. Here, we drive with divine faith: faith that the other fellow will swerve before we crash, that God will save our scooter as it zigzags between trucks, and that a red light is only a polite suggestion.
So, my dear Mr. Gadkari and Prime Minister, may I suggest an idea cheaper than all your grand projects? Forget pouring concrete. Pour discipline. Invest in CCTVs at every junction, every highway, every sneaky shortcut. Not those dummy ones with cobwebs, but working ones. Enforce fines not just in newspapers but in real wallets. For nothing teaches better than the gentle tug of rupees leaving one’s pocket.
Today, we have laws. We have fines. We even have road safety weeks. But what we lack is the will to collect those fines.
After all, why build a system that brings no kickbacks, no ribbon-cuttings, no grand inauguration ceremonies with garlands and speeches? A disciplined road, alas, earns no headlines.
But think, dear ministers, of the ripple effect. A disciplined road begets a disciplined driver. A disciplined driver begets a disciplined citizen. And a disciplined citizen—now that’s someone who might even start questioning why we are spending ₹11,000 crores on roads instead of schools, hospitals, and clean air. Dangerous, isn’t it?
Instead, we jail people for speaking against the government. Ah well, may I propose something more productive? Jail the serial traffic offenders! Lock up the man who thinks the divider is a good place to practice stunt biking. Put behind bars the SUV driver who treats a zebra crossing as his private parking space. Do that, and you’ll see change faster than you can say “expressway.”
And Mr. Prime Minister, may I respectfully suggest—get off your cavalcade once in a while. Walk across a foreign pedestrian crossing, where cars halt as soon as your toe nears the road. Then return here, try the same, and see if you don’t end up sprinting for your life.
That, sir, is the difference between building more roads and building more discipline.
So please, don’t waste our money on asphalt and concrete. Spend it on order, on enforcement, on the humble traffic constable with a working body camera.
A narrow road with discipline is better than a broad road with chaos.
Or else, dear citizens, we’ll soon discover we don’t need broader highways—just broader shoulders to carry the crushing burden of foolish spending…!