WANTED: Some planned brick and mortar

An

infrequent visitor driving down the Ring Road from South Delhi toward Old Delhi

is in for a surprise. A ramp turns off into an eight-lane expressway. You’re

suddenly on an autobahn that beats most US freeways. You hit the throttle and

the needle goes past 140. In minutes you’re at a snazzy 27-way toll plaza with

lanes flagged by red and green lights. Those with prepaid cards drive through,

past optical card readers (a "gold lane" will let them pass through

without stopping, their account debited via a transponder, Singapore style). In

minutes you’re out of the five-mile "DND Flyway" wondering what hit

you, and back to reality–in the heart of Noida.

Driving down Chennai a few days later, past brightly-colored fiber-optic

cables, it struck me that we’ve accepted infotech just fine in Indian cities.

We take in our stride the miles of fiber by the roadside from Gurgaon to Indore

to Cochin. Yet we’re stunned by physical infrastructure: the Noida tollway,

the Mumbai-Pune and Baroda-Hallol expressways...

Partly, it’s the firm belief that India can’t do infrastructure, or that

even if it does, it’s lousy quality. A quake razes a city like it’s been

nuked. Our high-tech southern software capital has an airport so cramped and

dingy, each time I’m there I wonder why India, the world’s IT outsourcing

destination, can’t build one world-class airport. When I go to Mumbai for one

meeting in Andheri and another in Collaba, I spend half the day driving through

our e-biz capital’s crowded, single road, wondering why our richest city can’t

build an elevated freeway. DATAQUEST publishes out of Gurgaon, North India’s

destination for software and services–a place that has everything...except for

electricity, telecom, transport, road management and water. The Gurgaon-Delhi

roads are choked, pothole-scarred and sans traffic enforcement. In the National

Capital Region, stop for a red light and you’ll be rammed, drive in the fast

lane and you’ll hit a truck coming the wrong way.

The $88-million toll-bridge pushed up Noida property prices, as it brought

the suburb closer. The impact of infrastructure on industry is dramatic, and the

IT industry is no exception. Software today is about HR, and IT campuses turn

into mini-cities packed with facilities that real cities don’t provide.

States jealous of Hyderabad and Bangalore, and those vying for IT investment,

have the answer: planned infrastructure. Plan that satellite tech city. Protect

space and green areas. Connect it with a managed six-lane expressway. Let

private utilities supply guaranteed power and telecom. And watch the investment

roll in.

Prasanto

Kumar Roy