Infrastructure spend welcome, but can’t lose sight of quality

The finance minister will present her budget in Parliament in just over two months. Though these are early days for speculations on the likely budget proposals, many feel that the government would continue its generous allocation towards infrastructure spending. In her previous budget, the FM had increased the outlay for capital expenditure by 35.4% from Rs 5.54 lakh crore to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in FY23. The expectations are that this might go up to Rs 10 lakh crore in the forthcoming budget.

Governments—both Union and state—have been making ambitious announcements regarding infrastructure. In August this year, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told Rajya Sabha that the road infrastructure in India would be similar to that of the United States. In this year’s budget, the finance minister announced the launch of 400 Vande Bharat high-speed trains in the next three years.

All political parties in India now understand the value of newly-created infrastructure and how they help in creating a sense of development and progress among voters. So, everyone wants to build roads, bridges, schools and hospitals and run new trains, metros, buses, etc. But the flip side of potholed roads, caving in newly-built expressways, high-speed trains being ‘derailed’ by cattle, and poorly managed hospitals and schools, raise the question of whether we are compromising on the quality in a hurry to create new infrastructure. Crowded and messy stations, airports and trains show signs of a revival of economic activities, but they also show the country’s infrastructure in a poor light. Poorly planned infrastructure could also become white elephants in the long run. 

While we can now boast of metro rails in many cities, it is also true that barring Delhi and Mumbai, most metro trains have been failing to get the kind of ridership that would help them break even. There is clearly a case for fixing the accountability of the authorities and private contractors responsible for poor quality work, maintenance and upkeep. We have come a long way in terms of infrastructure being created in the country, but need to keep raising the bar regarding the quality and utility of this infrastructure.