Economy
Nitin Gadkari’s road to nowhere
PM Modi repeats the mistakes of the Chinese Communist Party
This article is a direct rebuttal to Shekar Gupta’s episode about Prime-Minister Modi’s infrastructure plans.
While the nation for now does indeed need better roads and bridges, one must understand the pitfalls of too much infrastructure, before its too late. Look no further than China to understand where excessive infrastructure spending can lead to, but ‘Build it and they’ll come’ didn’t really work over there either. The exorbitant number of (empty) high-rises, bridges and empty buildings, all paid for by debt, threatens the very stability of the CCP. Exorbitant infrastructure focusing on cars is in part to blame for the debt accumulated by US-cities.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways shall be dissolved, since infrastructure is an issue largely for Municipalities and to lesser extent for the States. Municipalities on their own shall only build pathways and bicycle-lanes (that can’t be misused by cars or rickshaws). Ports, airports, public transportation, roads for cars, tunnels and bridges, are better build by selling land to private developers to let them operate without any Government-intervention. These private developers later are allowed to collect tolls for the usage of the same. The ability to collect tolls adds a profit-motive to complete the project efficiently (whereas today infrastructure-project take forever, because bureaucrats have no incentive to execute projects efficiently).
Some areas of the nation simply do not deserve good infrastructure and not every remote village must be connected to a road. There is no guarantee that local Governments can effort the maintenance of those roads. Subsidizing rural areas with infrastructure is fool-hardy, since it turns elected officials of that area into permanent carpet-beggars to keep the funding going. Rural-development is a fruitless money-pit, with no moral justification, why people in the cities should subsidize people in rural areas. Inhabitants of small villages can very much be asked to migrate to larger cities, after all urbanization is a natural process of development.
Infrastructure should focus on trains, planes and bicycles rather than cars. Furthermore, the car is loosing its function as a status-symbol and buying foreign-made cars sends money out the nation anyways, where it should be better spend at home. If one of the side-effects of private road-development is that driving cars becomes less affordable for certain populations, that shall be considered a welcome outcome, especially in the face of climate-change (EVs are not environmentally friendly), the high number of traffic-fatalities, rising cases of diabetes due to lack of exercise, plunging public finances and abundant smog in the cities. Once the cost of cars are accurately priced there will be no need to subside public transport or bike-sharing services, since market forces will make busses or bicycles more economically viable. Car-free neighborhoods encourage children to play outside more, which aids child-development. And having too many cars leaves a nation on the mercy of oil-producing regimes.
Cities must grow organically with as little urban-planning as possible. Planned cities may appear grandiose, but tend to be life- and soulless. A good example on how not to build a city is Gurgaon: One can tell that too many architects spend too much time in gigantic cities like New York or Shanghai, but not enough in those picturesque European cities like Kiev, Warsaw, Prague or Jerusalem. Cities should boast parks, trees and bicycle-lanes, not skyscrapers or wide roads for cars. They should be safe to walk at night or play outside. Furthermore, people can very much live in apartments instead of their own houses, so home-ownership should not be encouraged by Government. People migrating away from villages into the cities can bring relief to the habitats of tigers, elephants, etc..
Reform the the education-sector to create the workers a modern economy needs. Proceed with every other sector and shrink Government. Infrastructure should follow development to support the natural evolution of the economy.
Without a solid education-system any road will be a road to nowhere!
