[TorquePull]

How is India ahead of Thailand? I was in Thailand for 10 days last month. I travelled from Koh Samui in the south to Chiang Mai to the north. I even travelled to a remote village where roads were too narrow for two vehicles to pass. All the roads were in good condition. Even on stretches where works were going on, there were clear signages and alternative roads were also decent. I couldn’t find even a single highway in India, including Toll roads that matches the standards in Thailand.

[MJ23]

And instead of demanding for better roads and infrastructure from our politicians and for rooting out corruption in the tendering process, we as a nation have moved to buying SUVs (including pseudo-SUVS / hatchback on stilts) to better handle our roads. That is how we roll sadly, sab chalta hai!

[starlord]

India expressways - Gooood
India city roads - Baaaad

[Akki272]

Guess voting seems to be closed or a technical issue hence unable to vote.
But I vote for No.
Living in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, the quality of roads are in truly in a sorry state with poor quality and patch work all around.
Forget SV rd or Link Road, even the WEH which primarily connects the Suburbs of Mumbai and acts as an important connection for vehicles plying within the city as well as towards Gujarat and further.
You may address Mumbai WEH as a highway of flyovers, but it’s really painful to drive on these pothole ridden roads, trust me the entire stretch starting from Dahisar toll naka (another useless toll) till Bandra every flyover has nothing but potholes and shoddy work done.
I mean look at the Mumbai - Ahmedabad highway for instance.. as you may be aware, concretisation is still in progress since 2023 and they say is scheduled to be completed in 2025.
Having one of my homes in Virar, I keep travelling once in two weeks and trust me, the concrete roads have started to rip off and can you imagine potholes on concrete roads.?
Why do you want to make such shoddy roads and then keep repairing it again and again and again??

I am frustrated with Mumbai roads honestly hence had to vent out here. Mods please feel free to cut short if needed.

[warp_10]

We should call it the Good Bad and the Ugly.

Good - NH
Bad - rest of the roads
Ugly - Bangalorean cratered roads :P

I agree it's acceptable roads (especially given our NH in the recent past have become world standards). But to see European and first world countries like Italy behind India in the index, I really doubt the validity of this data

[ezzzzrider]

First post in a long time here, hope I can contribute positively

Indian Road system can be broadly categorized into four major categories:
* National Highways/Expressways - Managed by Central Government and are the most well managed. Standardized set of rules, standards and less corruption.
* State Highways - Managed by State Government. The qualities degrade, and no standard set of rules with higher level of corruption.
* Roads managed by Municipalities. These are the worst. No set of standard rules. Very high level of corruption, as these road contracts are a way for the ruling party to manage their cadre.
* Village road/PMGSY road - Decently managed in the last few years. But very little maintenance once constructed. Very few standards followed.

Coming to the Indian roads, feel a few standardizations will go a long way.
* The way we view intersections has to be changed. Cross roads or junctions in Indian parlance are places for bus stops, chai addas, auto stops etc etc. This is true for almost all Indian cities, towns even down to villages. The corner shop, the corner plots are coveted.
* We need to have standardised rules for all roads, not allowing any shops, bus stops or auto stops within 50 meter of a junction. This will free up congestion and smoothen traffic quite a lot. Majority of accidents happen on these junctions. If we have a standard set of guidelines which have to be followed it will help reduce accidents and increase traffic flows drastically.
* For 4 lane national highways where there is a green zone in between, they should all be fenced off. This will reduce most of the cattle accidents. At present this area becomes the grazing area for cattle, inevitable leading to jumping into oncoming traffic. Had a scare recently on a six lane highways. Was overtaking a truck running parallel with another truck. A cow ran across these two trucks and jumped in front of me. Had I been slower, I would have crashed into it.
* Having these steel barriers will also prevent random jaywalking and motorcycles illegally crossing the highway. The High speed/overtaking lane will actually become what it is supposed to be.
* Traffic police in India should only be for regulating traffic. They should not be responsible for helmet less/seatbelt challans. Feeds into corruption and diverts from their role. These challans should be automated without any human interventions. Technology has come a long way to actually make this possible. One exception is mobile usage, these should have the heaviest challans.
* Government has the right set of rules regarding speedbreaker design and construction, but is rarely followed. These should be simplified to be easier to implement.
* Parking Pandemic is something which we have to think about. Indians don’t follow any rules whatsoever regarding parking. With almost all houses in villages with no parking, having multiple bike ownerships, everyone parks on the roads. Have faced jams in villages because someone just left the bike in the middle of road and went to have tea. Decent civic sense is something which has to be inculcated right from the top.
* Politicians should not have dedicated corridors, they should face the same traffic jams that us mere mortals face, then only they will be forced to implement changes.
* Courts should not be given leeway to provide stays where 90% of the land has been appropriated, but 10% folks get court stay. This leads to cases like the Chinese Nail houses which cause problems to a tonne of folks because of one person being obstinate. They can be given standard compensation and continue their court fights, but the public should not be inconvenienced.
* When constructing state highways, care should be taken to start avoiding right angle turns, because that was the old road going around someone’s farmland. So now instead of going straight you have two 90 degree turns on a major highway.