Fixing potholes can make India Richer!

Have you ever thought about this? Fixing potholes can make the India Richer!

How on Earth is it even possible you may ask. It's simple. Connect the dots, see the system with a Fish Eye Lens. Before we could explain how, let us take a moment to appreciate this man. His name is Baadal Nanjundaswamy.

Frustrated by the failure of the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the administrative body responsible for the civic and infrastructural assets of Bangalore metropolitan area) to repair a giant pothole and a broken water pipe in the middle of the main road, a city-based artist, Baadal Nanjundaswamy, planted a 20 kg life-sized crocodile in the 12-feet-long pothole and painted the pothole green. Bangalore has reportedly over 2,000 potholes in 422 of its main roads.

The reptile created quite some panic, but people soon realised it was a novel way of protest by Nanjundaswamy. He created his fiber crocodile over a week's time at a personal cost of Rs 6000.

The 36-year old artist is not new to these forms of protest. He had earlier created a mouth of 'Yamaraj' in an open manhole to show that it was a death trap. The civic authorities reportedly fixed it within a day.

So here is how it works, we analysed the cause and effect of Bad Roads situation in India.

Analysing just one small part of the system took a while and a lot of realisation.

A road network is a lot like the human nervous system. Good pavement and decent roadway zones keep a local economy moving, healthy and growing, but potholes and slow-moving construction projects are like plaque. It is going to take longer to deliver goods in and out of the region. Delivery vehicles will be damaged more often (flat tires, bent tire rims, broken axles, etc.) and need more repairs. Labor and fuel costs increase when traffic moves slowly; due simply to bad conditions, or diversions during repairs and resurfacing – causing drivers and their passengers to endure more time per trip.

Also good roads will lead to good mileage, less oil consumption and thus imports of oil into India will reduce, making India greener and richer.

Bad roads can cause accidents, which leads to loss of life, injuries, damage to vehicles, hence causing downtime, repairs, replacement of spares and hospitalization, which all contributes to usage of energy and resources, which otherwise could have been avoided. Keeping the citizen healthy and thus the country healthy, which leads to good productivity, and hence better earnings, and hence good economic growth for the nation.

So the equation is simple!

Bad roads = Bad business = Poor Economy

The strategy to be followed is simple. Keep the roads in good shape, like in the States of Gujarat and Goa, It is the affordable way to keep economies moving.