Road to perdition

Rakesh Kochhar

IT was in 1973, when I was 17 years old, that I travelled alone for the first time from Chandigarh to Delhi by bus for the all-India medical entrance test. The fare was about Rs 9 for the ordinary bus and Rs 13 for the deluxe coach; there were no AC buses then. I recall nervously getting in and out of the bus, unsure if it would go to Delhi, till a co-passenger allayed my apprehensions by pointing to the ‘Chandigarh-to-Delhi non-stop’ board near the driver’s seat. Even after over 40 years, I vividly remember the landmarks and stops on the way to Delhi. The road till Ambala was lined with tall trees that would provide shade to travellers, with lush green fields on either side. There were no monstrous apartments to block the view.

The five-hour journey had three stops — Ambala Cantt, Karnal and Panipat. There were no flyovers then. The road through Panipat was a nightmare with long traffic jams. Buses stopped at the Karnal bus stand, right in the centre of the city. The Haryana Roadways restaurant there would serve exquisite omelette-toast all through the day. The 15-20 minute halt, required to have a decent meal, was only meant for deluxe buses. Ordinary buses would have a shorter stop during which one would hurriedly grab samosas or pakoras. Sometime in the 1970s, Bansi Lal, the chief minister of Haryana, had revolutionised highway tourism in Haryana with impressive roadside restaurants, including some at bus stands. The lake-side tourism complex at Karnal was one such and a hot favourite of car owners. Some privileged buses would stop there later.

Times have since changed, with a six-lane highway replacing the 265-km road. However, the highway has remained a work-in-progress all these years. I remember reading with a lot of enthusiasm the news (sometime in the 1980s) that the government had approved tens of crores of rupees for the highway, and a few years later, that the World Bank had sanctioned the cost of the highway project. It was rumoured that the scheme never really took off because kickbacks were not included in the cost projections!

I would tell my friends from beyond Vindhyachal that during their next visit this side, they would travel on a modern highway, unlike the ones in their states. Alas, that dream has remained just that. Despite periodic changes of governments at the state and central levels, the highway authority of India coming into being, and Vajpayee’s golden quadrilateral getting started, the highway remains incomplete. It still takes five hours to Delhi by bus. Whether one is in a bus or in the comfort of a luxury car, it is annoying to take so many bumpy diversions. One wonders if we have indeed moved into the 21st century! The high court, as also the Supreme Court, has intervened and yet the contractors are getting extensions. In the meantime, we have so many expressways in southern states that can compare with the best in the world. I hope to see the day in my lifetime when the work-in-progress actually gets completed.