Transportation Niti

By Chanakya

The Americans built their highways in the 1930s thinking of the BMWs that are zipping across the country today. The Chinese are building infrastructure for roads that may take care of traffic congestion in the year 2100 AD. The world over, transportation has been one of the most well planned part of infrastructure, but Nepal has grappled over the decades just executing half baked plans. Nepal has been devoid of a long-term transportation plan and remains so even when congestion is growing and safety is being questioned.

The fact that Nepal is a landlocked country automatically stresses on the need of a good thinking on the issues relating to transportation. But on the contrary, all forms of transportation have never been given the priority it deserves. Roads have been built in Nepal by India and China more for underlying geo-political reasons rather than the real economics of it. With the easing of political confrontation between them better Nepali roads do not have much value to any of the two countries. Also there are countries that have supported the Banepa-Bardibas roads for reasons other than practicality or shortening of distances. Else stretches of the road would not have been made so narrow. In a nutshell, we have been showered upon with enough money over the past building roads that make little economic sense for us though they may make better sense for the contracting companies from the donor countries. The successive governments at all levels have been more interested in creaming off these projects of large outlay rather than ever trying to give some direction.

Last year was a very interesting one for the transportation sector. Kathmanduites had a sigh of relief to see the smoke belching blue Vikrams out. However, in one year we have Vikrams of all kinds running on gas and batteries that create the same nuisance as their predecessors and the micro buses are generating enough smoke to balance the loss. Therefore in one year the scenario is back to the one that we are used to. We have always had ministries, departments and activist groups fighting but definitely some individuals are rejoicing. Even individuals in the pressure group have taken some clue from the government officials and the rumour is that they have made some quick bucks.

The transportation situation is in a mess with inherent lack of plans, coupled with high political squabbles and reckless government decision-making being fuelled by mafia cartels in the garb of associations. We never want to act in time, be it in stopping registering the ever growing numbers of ‘non-polluting’ rickshaws or the ‘hand-carts’ that survive by slipping coins to the traffic cop’s out-stretched hands. We have made a utter chaos of the pollution standards, making Nepal’s emission standards and its implementation the best joke amongst auto manufacturers. The Hetauda – Kathmandu tunnel perhaps provides another perfect example of the variety of humour we can provide.

The cost of wrong transportation policies perhaps is one of the most expensive one to the economy. The impact on the import bills of oil due to wrong road layouts as well as congestion is immense. The old vehicles not only reduce efficiency but its negative impact on environment is very high. The inefficient transportation management drains country’s resources and the solutions are definitely not ones that can be thought over overnight.

Perhaps, the country needs a vision as far as transportation for 2025 if not 2040. The future generation will definitely applaud the efforts that will be made now to come out with a plan. The plan should encompass all forms and means of transportation and provide a blue print that can be later translated into action. The planning resources that are required for this exercise would be immense and this would be a good point to check out the commitment of the bilateral and multilateral agencies that are working in Nepal. The allocation of funds for this plan could be made, may be, by delaying a road construction project. The particular road can come up later but plans have to come now. A particular geographical location would suffer for a while but the nation would definitely benefit in the long run.

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