Road travel on National Highway 58

I have traveled by road in the north of India earlier – but probably did not closely observe the movement of traffic and people or you could say people and traffic – whichever way does not matter. This road takes your from Delhi to Roorkee and beyond. I had an opportunity to go there on office related work – I was told the journey takes about four and a half hours but it took almost seven. We had an elderly driver who told us six and a half to seven hours and ensured we reached within HIS estimated time of arrival. The traffic in Delhi is quite crazy with the amount of construction activity which is going on – traffic jams were common – it took us almost two hours to get out of Delhi from the airport.

It was extremely hot – upwards of 45 degrees centigrade and the car AC was barely effective. Once we reached the outskirts of Delhi and the road to Ghaziabad, we started encountering traffic which moved in the wrong direction – meaning if it is a four lane road with a road divider, one would find vehicles coming at you from ahead even though the road for oncoming traffic is open and vehicles are running on it. The first time it happened I thought it was an aberration – but as we progressed I realized that after you enter Uttar Pradesh this probably was the norm. You can observe traffic moving both ways on your side of the road as well as on the other side of the road – I kept wondering how accidents did not happen. The road are in a bad shape – probably the contractors have given up on completing the NHAI’s grandiose national highway project – especially in UP. The other thing that hits you is the “autos” – these are actually cycle rickshaws but are called “autos” and the “autos” are called rickshaws – this is the local distinction between the two forms of transport. The autos and rickshaws put together make driving a nightmare as on narrow and bad roads making any kind of speed is difficult.

Our driver was safety personified – even though he could have overtaken heavy traffic from the right umpteen times, he preferred to follow their tail thus ensuring that we reached Roorkee in seven hours (it is only 170km from Delhi) instead of five hours. Near Moradnagar we came to a stretch where we were stuck for almost half an hour because the driver refused to overtake and preferred to burn diesel waiting behind a truck. Ultimately I had to forcefully request him to take a right and go as umpteen cars had already passed us by. After he did that, and I saw the reason for the jam, a bridge was to be constructed and three horizontal sections were built across the highway and I was told that it has been like this for at least a couple of years – this is bang across the highway, thus vehicles going straight had to make a detour and vehicles coming from the side had to maneuver the potholes, people bicycles and autos leading to an ending traffic jam. Once we passed this section, we were entering proper UP, and a new sight on the roads are what are known as “jugaats” – these are home made vehicles which use a diesel generator for an engine, the engine is housed in the front in the open and it is attached to a cart with pneumatic wheels. These vehicles carry people as well as cargo and chug along the road at jogging speed – thus slowing down traffic still further – I am told these vehicles do not have reverse gear.

One actually needs to travel to interior UP to see how poor the people are, and unfortunately they have not seen better so are satisfied with what they have.

When it came to trying and getting work done, that was when we got our lesson in patience – nothing happens, you have to really push to make things happen. The standard response is “ho jayega saab, tension mat lena” – this is something we all know – but when will it happen is the question – we were there for about ten hours only within which a lot had to be accomplished. We managed to do quite a bit, but pushing, cajoling people to move – but being from Mumbai, where we expect things to happen, there we were made to wait twiddling our thumbs, but still doing what we managed itself is an achievement considering the attitude of the people.

Travel by road in UP is a must for novelty tourism – I think our Tourism ministry should think about it seriously!