The perfect state - Rajasthan...

Why is the going so slow on such a large number of infrastructure projects in the country. The much maligned babudom is a convenient scapegoat. It also deserves the title actually. But the issue is not as simple as that. A big issue in developing anything is availability of land.

India suffers from a variety of issues hampering land use for infrastructure growth - be it SEZ, airports, metros, power plants etc etc...I propose to list them out and elaborate on them in this blog.

1. India faces legacy issues. Its a country where development was preceeded by growth in people who are already living there and occupying the land. Any development therefore must be preceeded by a people relocation exercise. Further, states have poor or weak land records. This means that the tillers of the land have no legal right to the land and hence they are not entitled to any compensation for loss of their land. The result - Nandigram.
2. Available land in India is dual use. India pays the price for being a fertile land which is good for agriculture and necessary for urban centres at the same time.
3. India, to some extent and rightfully so, is paying the price for democracy. See China for a contrast.

A good corollary for all the three points is Dubai. India today can spend almost as much as Dubai can, but in Dubai, development is preceeding people. Dubai has negligible agriculture so the land can be fully committed to urban infrastructure. There are no legacy issues and no people to relocate. Finally, there is no democracy and so there are few conflicts of interest.

So what is the solution to all this. Most fortunately, there is a state in the country with huge land area unoccupied by people. It faces no legacy issues, no ownership rights transfers as its largely desert. The state is Rajasthan (and to some extent Gujarat). Imagine the scope for developing transport hubs, SEZs, power plants and other infrastructure in the heart of the desert linked by a express tube to Jaipur which in turn is linked to the Delhi airport. Its time to go for a desert safari.It can be done...

Delhi Airport - 2020

I have finally managed to crack it!! Given the plethora of coverage it was receiving, it had become simply impossible to determine the final picture on the status of the Delhi airport. But finally its all been checked.

Status 2008

Ok so here is the status - Mission 2008. New terminal 1 between current terminal 1A & 1B. This will cater to all domestic airlines. This is just an interim terminal. Also we will get a spruced up terminal 2 for international connections. Unfortunately not much else will change, other than one additional runway in Delhi.

Status 2010

Now here is the big one. A new terminal 3 (thats the video on the GMR website). This is an integrated terminal (both domestic & international) which will be linked by metro to CP (the dedicated connection on which work began recently). Further, the domestic interim terminal will be connected to the metro via the dwarka line which will be extended. The interim terminal will be converted to a low cost carrier terminal. Apparently the current terminal 2 will be razed to the ground (Yahoo!!!) for further expansion of the new Terminal 3.

Beyond 2020

Expanding the terminal 3 complex to form a huge U shaped complex. Looks really nice.

Other Projects

1. The CP-Badarpur metro line is facing unnecessary controversy. Rest of the work appears to be on track.
2. Bangalore and Hyderabad airports ready for launch by around March-2008 but are mired with connectivity problems between the new airports and the city.
3. Mumbai metro and airports facing land acquisition issues and on hold at the moment.

The only projects going great guns are in Delhi. And its hilarious to see that the one project which has led to all infrastructure projects in Delhi is facing trouble - The commonwealth games village is hopelessly behind schedule. I pray that the committee withdraws the games from Delhi just before 2010 so that we can finish all the other ones and ditch further embarassment during the games.