[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by AVR

Interesting thread.
Few points
- Gujarat has always had lovely roads much before Modi became a CM. let's not attribute everything good to a guy who doesn't always have a role to play in it.

Right on the money AVR. That fellow has a penchant for taking credit where its'nt due and getting himself photographed in various poses. Gujarat always had good roads. When relatives used to come visit way back in early 90s, they used to always remark Gujarat has such good roads,eventhough it was two laned back then. His concept of "Swarnim Gujarat" only exists in Gujarat's Tier I cities like Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot etc. Go to smaller cities & town and you'll come to know the truth.

[aaggoswami]

As far as roads are concerned, not all of them were in great state. The route of national importance i.e. from Vapi to A'bad was good, but Saurashtra roads were horrible. I have been frequenting Saurashtra quite a bit and roads there were mostly bad. However, its only in recent years that roads have improved significantly. In fact, the road from Borsad-Vataman-Fedra-Dhandhuka is a stretch where the surface is better than the current surface of Vadodara-A'bad expressway. Even the tyres make less noise. Things have improved a lot and today, any good driver can manage to drive around 700 to 1000 kms. in a day in Gujarat. I have done this multiple times.

Originally Posted by vigsom

Roads have always been good, repairs are undertaken immediately after rains(at least that is what I have seen in Diamond City) , upkeep of the city is top class despite the dust that this city sees.

South Guj offers some breathtaking greenery as well.

Surat is one city which has suffered a lot and learnt too. Surat, to the best of my knowledge, is quickest to repair roads and keep the city clean. Surat is any given day cleaner than A'bad, Vadodara or even Rajkot. Roads are also in good condition as compared to smaller cities.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by AVR

Gujarat has always had lovely roads much before Modi became a CM.

This was the exact thought that came to my mind too on first reading this thread. Even when we lived there in the late 70s, the roads were great (wide/smooth) - atleast in the Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar area which we used to frequent.

[iSpoke]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

That fellow has a penchant for taking credit where its'nt due and getting himself photographed in various poses. His concept of "Swarnim Gujarat" only exists in Gujarat's Tier I cities like Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot etc. Go to smaller cities & town and you'll come to know the truth.

Its called "Ghar ki murgi Daal barabar!"
Come to Pune and you will know all the publicity Modi gets is comparable to our local Corporators, not joking. I get to know some ground realities about some remote villages from a Doctor cousin on govt. duty. It came as a surprise to me that how small village hospitals have Internet and an operator so that daily records can be centralized and sent to Gandhinagar by the end of the day. Think about dialing 108 ambulances. Its a common argument from any anti-modi that whatever he does is supplied from Center and he is doing nothing big by giving it to public. Agreed, but Center is there for all the States and how many other CMs doing it?
Well, its diverting the discussion topic but bottom line is that the state is progressing and it certainly adds value to the country.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

As far as roads are concerned, not all of them were in great state. The route of national importance i.e. from Vapi to A'bad was good, but Saurashtra roads were horrible. I have been frequenting Saurashtra quite a bit and roads there were mostly bad. However, its only in recent years that roads have improved significantly. In fact, the road from Borsad-Vataman-Fedra-Dhandhuka is a stretch where the surface is better than the current surface of Vadodara-A'bad expressway. Even the tyres make less noise. Things have improved a lot and today, any good driver can manage to drive around 700 to 1000 kms. in a day in Gujarat. I have done this multiple times.

Surat is one city which has suffered a lot and learnt too. Surat, to the best of my knowledge, is quickest to repair roads and keep the city clean. Surat is any given day cleaner than A'bad, Vadodara or even Rajkot. Roads are also in good condition as compared to smaller cities.

Absolutely right, I had been to Saurashtra just two weeks back after more than a year of period and the stretch between Rajkot and Jamnagar (90km) has been upgraded to four lane and was operational. Earlier it used to be about 2hr journey and now it takes 1hr or little more.

Surat was named among dirties city of Gujarat back in 1994 when Plague broke out due to the mix of unhygienic conditions and heavy rains. Now its among the cleanest city out there.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by iSpoke

I
Well, its diverting the discussion topic but bottom line is that the state is progressing and it certainly adds value to the country.

Progressing, yes, as it always has been. But not because of one man, as it has rather been foolishly projected.

Case in point, there was this ad in paper where, Gujarat being the largest exporter of fishery products, was being credited to Modi. Any person in his right mind would not go along with this foolish propaganda. I just could not stop laughing after reading that, it was as if the ad was claiming that Modi went in some super duper boat and caught fishes himself to increase fishery product exports

Gujarat always was the largest exporter of fishery products in the country, it certainly wasn't because of that fellow, it is because Gujarat(Veraval/Porbandar/Okha specifically) has the largest tonnage of fish catches in the country.

[Sandy28]

The politicians, were ever they are, are basically marketers. They can not do without marketing themselve even if it means taking undue credits. But the point is that do they do something in return for all the due or undue credits that they take? Yes, Gujarat has always been a progressive state and had much better infrastructure compared to many other states. But the rate of progress and development that has taken place in the last 10 years is much faster than it used to happen earlier.

Originally Posted by iSpoke

Absolutely right, I had been to Saurashtra just two weeks back after more than a year of period and the stretch between Rajkot and Jamnagar (90km) has been upgraded to four lane and was operational. Earlier it used to be about 2hr journey and now it takes 1hr or little more.

Surat was named among dirties city of Gujarat back in 1994 when Plague broke out due to the mix of unhygienic conditions and heavy rains. Now its among the cleanest city out there.

A collegue drove down to Lalpur about 50 km from Jamnagar about 10 days back and reported excellent roads all thru. He did Ahmedabad to Jamnagar in just about 5 hrs. A friend regularly drives down to his native village in Bhavnagar and has always reported good road except for a stretch around Dholera. Most of interior roads across North Gujarat that I have driven on are in excellent condition even if they are narrow or 2laned roads.


P.S: I do not have any affiliation or fondness for any politician or political party.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by Sandy28

He did Ahmedabad to Jamnagar in just about 5 hrs.

Read my opening post. I covered that stretch in 3 and a half hours. Fabulous roads all throughout.

BTW I do feel that some part of the credit must go to the CM too. Afterall as someone else also mentioned each and every state has got access to all the funds. Karnataka charges one of the highest road taxes in the country but still does not even provide decent roads in Bangalore city. The Bangalore-mysore highway/expressway is riddled with speed breakers.

[SajiNSalin]

Some of the scenic roads in Gujarat are located near the border with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, specially from Dahod to Chote Udepur and the roads in Dangs district. The Bodeli to Halol road also passes through the forest and is very interesting to drive on.

Saji

[sgiitk]

Let us not discuss whether we like Modi or not.

We all agree that Gujarat roads are superb and the state is progressing. It is the man in chair who gets the bouquets and the brickbats.

I suggest we leave it at that. This is objective and the rest a matter of opinion (subjective).

[vb-saan]

Good to know about the roads in Gujarat. Are the highways there considered to be the safest as well? Ideally, good roads (and discipline as mentioned by Mohit) should result is lesser accidents. Just curious to know.

I have not done much of highway trips in India, but I found the highways in Tamil nadu pretty good. Lane discipline was lacking a bit though, especially trucks and buses on the rightmost lane.

[supremeBaleno]

Measuring politicians competence/credibility by roads is kinda off target. TN is another state that has some of the best roads in the country, but it is another matter when we come to the credibility of the lot that just vacated their chairs in the 2011 election.

[sgiitk]

Let me add my bits on honesty of politicians. The worst roads in India are most probably in Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and MP. Look at the last 20 years I dare say these states had the worst politicos. So there has to be some correlation, it cannot just be a coincidence. Even the GQ seems to suffer.

[Nitrous Power]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

For false propaganda as well?

As I mentioned before, I do not want this thread to become political. We are deviating from the topic big time. I can answer on your reply, but not doing so, just to make sure we don't deviate from the topic.

[ADI_77]

I travel for almost 4 days a week on various highways within Gujarat. The best of course is the A'bad-Vadodara expressway which I do every weekend. The A'bad-Rajkot Highway further to Porbander is fantastic. (the stretch from Rajkot-Gondal-Porbander) One other Highway worth mentioning is the Jamnagar-Dwarka stretch. I would also recommend anybody travelling to Gujarat to do the A'bad-Udaipur highway for a super drive, specially during monsoons.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by vb-san

Good to know about the roads in Gujarat. Are the highways there considered to be the safest as well? Ideally, good roads (and discipline as mentioned by Mohit) should result is lesser accidents. Just curious to know.

Even I would be very interested to see the figures for the same, if any exists. But otherwise speaking, one usually encounters 1 or more accidents whenever you travel on a highway/long distance. A truck overturned, mangled remains of a car and so on. On my 840 km long drive I encountered only 1 car which had met with an accident. From the look of it, looked like the guy lost control and was on highspeeds. The car was lying perched upon the central median, upside down.

One thing I loved and really appreciated is that there are very few people changing lanes dramatically. Each turn on the highway into neighboring villages has enough visibilty all around for you to spot any potential morons. Also they have proper sign boards telling you to " slow down: rural area ahead". It really helps in bringing your speed down knowing that a village/small town is approaching.

Originally Posted by ADI_77

I would also recommend anybody travelling to Gujarat to do the A'bad-Udaipur highway for a super drive, specially during monsoons.

Heard quite a lot about this too. Plan to do a Vadodara-jaipur drive in October.