[-xplora-]

Originally Posted by Daewood

A big part of this Gujarat success story owes it the media. Not saying everthing is a hype, but some part is. This extensive 6 page article in ET presents a detailed picture. What works and what doesn't in Narendra Modi's Gujarat - Economic Times
A sample is the Gujarat canal Solar project which was launched with full page ads all over India. Every newspaper went gaga over this project, which in reality generated only 1MW!!!. Contrast this with the amount of power generated by TN's Windmills. 6000MW. But no one puts up full page ads to announce this outstanding achievement. Probably the highest amount of clean energy generated by a state in the whole world. Even people in TN are not aware of this awesome figure. These things make me suspect whether the same hype that the media created, when Chandrababu Naidu was CM(he was referred as CEO) for Andhra are being played again. Babus seek CEO Chandrababu?s touch - Times Of India

Haha..disagree. If it were just media, then Mr. Modi is definately doing a great job of managing the media. Actually speaking there are 100's of projects he has done that has transformed Gujarat, BRTS is one of the small ones. BTW, Gujarat generates about 3000 MW from wind power, you need to understand that Wind power harnessing depends on the force and availability of suitable wind / terrain / location for it to be possible. Kerala generates quite less Wind power, does not mean its Government is not interested in renewable energy.

To put things in perspective of renewable energy. Gujarat generates 67% of India's solar electricity, while TN generates a meager 1.5%. Top that , that is just because sun is shining more in GJ and RJ and we have a sensible CM.

Also, BRTS of Delhi and Ahmedabad are very different, although the traffic point is definately acceptable, rest of planning is quite different including crossing of passengers etc. Infact, BRTS here has used Delhi's failure as one of the case study before implementing in GJ. .

[shreeps]

I have been hearing a lot about the wonderful roads of Gujarat recently (even from some non TBHPian friends who visited GJ)
Seeing all these posts sure makes me want to check out the roads myself. Maybe a Gujarat trip is in the offing.

Originally Posted by columbus

Ahemdabad traffic has rules of itself.

1. Two vehicles approach and drivers have eye contact. Now look for the head signal.. if its a nod then he will cross first. If its a head swing then you go first.
2. People have a habit of darting at the last minute. You will find a vehicle approaching and intersection very slowly and suddenly he will press the pedal and sneak into place.
3. Autowallahs don't give hand signals for turning. They put their legs out..

Hilarious!! Specially the description re: Autowallahs. Come on .. tell me you were kidding!! I mean ... leg signals!! LOL

[paragsachania]

For a subject that focused more on the Highways and the driving mannerisms, we seem to have discussed almost everything else from Political leadership to other projects (totally unrelated to highways) and compared Highway driving to that inside the city.

Let me tell you that there is a "Huge" difference (on the better side) when it comes to driving on Gujarat highways and there should simply be no comparison with city driving at all.

Of course, one will definitely find jokers on GJ highways indulging in every nature of acrobatics putting someone else's life at risk too but having said that, the overall percentage of such "Bad Drivers" is way too less to be bothered about.

Wouldn't we all feel good (and safe) when someone ahead moves left upon a flash of your headlight so that you can overtake without honking of slowing down at all? Mostly everyone heeds to such request!!

More than this, I have witnessed impeccable implementation at toll booths between GJ Border all the way till RJ where lanes for cars are strictly for cars. If for some reason the trucks create longer jams due to queuing up at these toll booths, the toll attendants make way for cars. It has happened to me on all the 3 occasions that I have driven from Bangalore.

And those drivers who regularly take the Narmada Bridge between Ankleshwar and Bharuch would share a similar experience as mine where I witnessed that the left hand side shoulder (that is marked strictly for cars) doesn't get encroached by trucks at all and even if they do, they for sure will move back to their main lane upon honking. I have seen even GSRTC buses maintain this decorum rather than spoil the party for the smaller cars.

Overall I would still find driving on GJ roads (should I explicitly refrain from mentioning city driving?) a better experience when I compare it with the rest of the states and GJ traffic is definitely dense (at least NH8) and has an equal mixture of traffic involving trucks, cars and buses.

[sandeepmohan]

Can't agree with you more. I did the run on the GQ1, which is around these parts on my Bombay - Delhi road trip in a friends Civic back in 2008. 25th July to be precise. Back then, getting out of Bombay was a nightmare and the freeways leading to Gujarat were being constructed. You know how they do things here. My friend was at the wheel and we left Bombay only at 730pm. I remember stopping at a joint for dinner called "Hotel DECENT". It was a very taxing drive at night. My friend gave up around 1am due to the blinding lights and sleep was catching up. We both slept in the car but I was unable to deal with noise from the road so I decided to take over the wheel. It was not easy. My friends new Civic, the low ground clearance, lousy roads and blinding lights got me tired in no time. And then god blessed us out of the blue with the GQ1. I saw the toll booth from a distance but had my reservations if there really did exist a road beyond the booth. Paid up, drove off slowly and then realized that nirvana had arrived. I gunned it after a few minutes. Gujarat had their roads in place back then, at least the short GQ patch. I still remember covering the 75km paid stretch in just 25 minutes at 3am in the morning. We were flying.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Daewood

A sample is the Gujarat canal Solar project which was launched with full page ads all over India. Every newspaper went gaga over this project, which in reality generated only 1MW!!!. Contrast this with the amount of power generated by TN's Windmills. 6000MW.

What did you expect 100MW from a small area of solar panels. This development has a simple message, no extra land covered by Solar Panels and also reduction in evaporation losses. I think it is a brilliant idea which deserved to be scaled up.

TN windmills are also great but TN is fast losing my respect due to the totally irrational opposition to Kundakulam. There is every reason to believe that this is funded by the anti-nuclear lobbies of the US and Germany. In case of the former it is also a case of sour grapes. How will they get power, carbon emissions rule out fossil fuels. May be we can just switch off Tamil Nadu.

[ZeRo©]

Gujarat Highways have always been praised and truly so. Even during the 90's, highways were like Hema malini's smooth cheeks and Modi wasn't ruling then, maybe it's a tradition there.

Though highway etiquette in Gujarat is nice, inside cities its a whole world apart. I have spent 9 years in Ahmedabad (or Amdavad as gujaratis call it), first timers have to learn a lot of new things.

1. Wrong side driving is totally accepted and part of daily life in Ahmedabad.
No one bothers as long as you keep on the left side, here in north I observed when driving on the wrong side, people prefer the right side.

2. "My left foot" or the right foot technique by the auto drivers is a reality, though its usage has come down. Switching on the blinkers is much easier after that heavy bhajiya and gathiya naasta(Breakfast), btw naasta is done twice or thrice a day.

3. People are cool headed and a nick and scratch won't be much of an issue and javaa do (let it go) or vaando nathi (no problem) is not very uncommon to hear. Totally different from some places in India where even a hard stare can get you killed, case in point my gaon(Gurgoaon) where people are averse to pay 30 rupees toll but fire a 80 rupees bullet.

4. When I was there bajaj supers ruled the streets, many with side cars, Tata nano was conceptualized much later, the side cars provided more or less the same carrying capacity. I am not aware about the current scenario.

5. Helmet rule has met with a strong opposition by the general public each time and I have seen people literally fighting with traffic cops, I do not understand why? Also Underage driving is rampant.

6. I have taught my friends the Gujarati style of creeping into heavy traffic, the art is to keep moving 1 inch at a time into the traffic, stop go, stop go and you are in. For live view of this art you can observe the traffic signals in Ahmedabad city where each two wheelers rider does this and in sync with one another, its hilarious and effective.

there are lot more things but you will learn eventually.

: The Gujarat incidents which have been the talking point for the whole country were ever present even before Modi just like the Highways.
When we first set foot on Gujarat soil in 92 there was a curfew that day and state was being ruled by another party.

[rajeshsundaram]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I paid a total of 175 Rs for the whole 420 km journey. The major chunk of this was Rs 90 for the 100 km ahmedabad-baroda expressway.

In Tamilnadu, L&T is ripping off in 4 lane highway tolls! Checkout the thoppur ghat section road, and the 4 lane between Sriperumbudur to Arcot.. both are ridiculous, yet they have the guts to increase toll! Wish we have a Modi like CM!

[sgiitk]

@rajeshsundaram; The thumb rule for tolls is 50p/km. However if the area is urban or the terrain dodgy then the rate goes up. In UP one case in point is Allahabad bypass. Also, sometimes there is a long stretch of urban highway which is not tolled, so when you hit the toll you end up paring for that also. Example is Fatehpur again on Kanpur-Allahabad stretch of NH2.

[amit162]

I stayed in Vadodara for ten years and traversed the entire area from Vadodara to Dwarka, Somnath, and to Mount Abu with fantastic roads and expressways comparable to the best in the world. During this period I naively thought that this sort of progress was happening throughout the country with broad roads expressways and flyovers being constructed. Was I in for a shock when I had to reluctantly shift on posting to Dehradun!
The roads in Gujarat, whether state highways or national highways are superb. In highways when you cross towns you can notice distinct service lanes or fly overs so that highway traffic is not effected. I also noticed that the very truck drivers (with north indian registration ) who will perhaps not budge an inch elsewhere would move to the left in Gujarat highways, the moment they saw a speeding car coming. There was very little honking required. This is true for city traffic also. When I recently visited Vadodara, I was pleasantly surprised to notice that auto rickshaws and other slow moving vehicle themselves giving way to faster cars without any persuasion.Very unlike this side where inspite of honking people refuse to budge and give way - they will be using their mobiles or casually talking to the other car occupants and driving very slowly. But are not plain bothered, nor is the police here.Long drives in Gujarat are a pleasure to look forward to. Up north we dread the thought.One more thing was the attitude of the local people/youth in the city who would immediately come forward to help regulate the traffic in case of any jam or problem.No one gets worked up in case of small scratches etc.Its the attitude of the people of Gujarat and the political will which makes it such a wonderful state to live in.

[troublemaker]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

What did you expect 100MW from a small area of solar panels. This development has a simple message, no extra land covered by Solar Panels and also reduction in evaporation losses. I think it is a brilliant idea which deserved to be scaled up.

TN windmills are also great but TN is fast losing my respect due to the totally irrational opposition to Kundakulam. There is every reason to believe that this is funded by the anti-nuclear lobbies of the US and Germany. In case of the former it is also a case of sour grapes. How will they get power, carbon emissions rule out fossil fuels. May be we can just switch off Tamil Nadu.

I second this. I was really impressed by the idea on Solar panels on the canal to do the double duty.

On the general topic, I have lived in A'bad for the first 25 years of my life. I had taken the decent roads for granted till I first traveled through interior Maharashtra. Even during my recent pilgrimage to Tirupati, on way from Chennai to Tirumala, I ended up asking the driver whether he had taken some back-road but answer was "No Sir, this is state highway"! I have not seen such a broken road in my while life. :(

I have very fond memories of racing M800 on Ahmedabad - Gandhinagar highways - way back in the days (and won't do that again)!

[drmohitg]

Well I did another trip to ahmedabad this weekend. The monsoons had made the weather just too tempting and hence decided to go on a long drive again. Some pics I clicked this time to give you guys an idea of how good the roads are ( and hence me going gaga over them ).










I had some work in Ahmedabad this time and hence drove in the city for quite sometime. The city traffic is really opposite to what you experience on the highways. I was shocked to see people not even giving any respect to red signals. Everyone just keeps nudging ahead and crosses the road without giving two hoots for the red signal. Also the BRTS in ahmedabad is no different from Delhi. I could not spot any difference atleast. The only reason that its working right now is because of the lesser number of vehciles on roads compared to Delhi and hence they can manage to take away all that space from the road and dedicate it to BRTS.

[acatgain]

I am seeing that nowadays many medians between the two opposite lanes are filled with lush green vegitation which grows to about 4 to 5 feet high. This is a nice way to increace the greenery around. It also helps in reducing the glares of the opposite vehicles and helps you to drive with high beam always .

But this has a dark side to it also..
CATTLES !! These four legged poor creatures creep into these lush green medians, (which they see as we see Biriyani) and sometimes wander into the roads suddenly to the surprise of a speeding vehicle usually doing around 100kmph. The Driver can rarely spot them beforehand as they are hid in the tall bushes in these wide medians. So Fellow Drivers.. Be careful while on the innermost fast lane and Drive safe..

The Solution for this would be to have a soft grill or some barrier which prevents them to first roam to the highways and also to the medians. I mentioned SOFT grill because in case of minor accidents hard barriers would make them to major ones.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by acatgain

I am seeing that nowadays many medians between the two opposite lanes are filled with lush green vegitation which grows to about 4 to 5 feet high. This is a nice way to increace the greenery around. It also helps in reducing the glares of the opposite vehicles and helps you to drive with high beam always .

But this has a dark side to it also..
CATTLES !! These four legged poor creatures creep into these lush green medians, (which they see as we see Biriyani) and sometimes wander into the roads suddenly to the surprise of a speeding vehicle usually doing around 100kmph. The Driver can rarely spot them beforehand as they are hid in the tall bushes in these wide medians. So Fellow Drivers.. Be careful while on the innermost fast lane and Drive safe..

The Solution for this would be to have a soft grill or some barrier which prevents them to first roam to the highways and also to the medians. I mentioned SOFT grill because in case of minor accidents hard barriers would make them to major ones.

So true,have been a victim myself of this biriyani effect once as over a time these shrubs grow up to be bigger than the cattle in height.

[narayan]

I have been myself bitten by the Gujrat bug recently and decided to plan our next family vacation to Gujrat. For me, the fact that getting veg food is very easy is an added plus. While a lot has been said about the political will, the enterprising spirit of the people.. I also wonder whether total prohibition also has some correlation here.

[dr.faramroze]

Gujarat NH-8 highway driving could be more fun if the lanes were more symmetrical. Observe the sudden narrow cuts just after the shoulders. Layering is smooth and NHAI pays good upkeep in maintaining the butter feel but lane plan needs minor improvements, the median along the crossing bay. Even state highways and city roads are well kept, zones not yielding revenue are uniformly attended.