Driving force

The road to India8217;s economic transformation is still under construction, despairingly so, as this newspaper8217;s five-part reportage and analysis showed. To recap a few of the disturbing statistics put together by our correspondents: the showpiece golden quadrilateral GQ project, connecting Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai, has 5,846 km uncovered, deadlines have been extended to 2007 and 2008; the north-south-east-west NSEW corridor 8212; Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Porbandar to Silchar 8212; has a 7,300 km-long gap; only 15 per cent of the land needed for the NSEW corridor has been acquired.

There are heaps of blame to be apportioned. State governments account for a big share because land acquisition is perhaps the most fundamental problem, and states have to do the acquiring. Gujarat8217;s exceptional performance 8212; 76 per cent of the 361 acres acquired 8212; serves to damn laggards even more. What business does Tamil Nadu have to acquire only 2 per cent of the required area? DMK and AIADMK may jointly hold the world record for political antagonism, but just how irresponsible can their politics get? Where politics isn8217;t the roadblock, political correctness is. Governments need to take a fair but firm line on land acquisition. Compensation rates need to be the best the current local market conditions offer. Clear-out time for settlers or landowners should be reasonable. Time and money issues sorted out, state governments should brook no other arguments. There will inevitably be occasions when official efforts to acquire land will be dubbed as heartless. Those are the occasions when politics of any kind must have no influence on any politician making the decisions.

No one surely understands better than Manmohan Singh in this government, the economic multiplier effects of a world-class highway network. The PM must therefore provide political momentum. Singh took charge of airport modernisation at a time corporate lobbying and labour militancy were threatening the policy. What he did for flying, he needs to do for driving.