Bridge Economics

In them good old days, a bridge was for crossing a river or a bridge was built over or under a rail track for vehicles plying on the road to cross to the other side. Bridge also meant the 'king of card games', which it continues to be and today more and more people enjoy playing and benefiting from this mind sport. However, today bridges are being built for many more reasons - here one is not talking about building bridges between nations/families/friends/relatives/ corporations!

Real brick and mortar, solid bridges, variously referred to as over-bridges, flyovers, elevated expressways etc. are being built at the drop of a hat. Driving, walking - any kind of road use - is a nightmare while these are 'under construction'. Even if one were to admit temporary sacrifice is necessary for long term benefits, not all these constructions are properly planned and not all of them improve matters; in some cases they make things more difficult. Today, Dec 29th one more fly over - this time in GN (Chetty) Road is being inaugurated by the CM. Another instance of a not well thought out construction. The general feedback is the bridge is too short and with a little more thought; the bridge could be built to make it more useful for all road users.

This is not the first case; in T Nagar alone, there are fly overs galore - most recently two in Usman Road - neither really serving the purpose. In fact, one of the comments heard is that the fly over near Panagal Park is more of a Giant Slide - does not serve any worthwhile purpose of easing traffic flow. One does agree, in big metros, with the explosion in the number of road users and the exponential increase in road traffic, Governments have to keep thinking and innovating; have to look at a number of alternatives, flyovers being one of them, but are these projects given enough thought? May be lot of thinking does go into these, since these projects also have to make economic sense. They should be economically viable for the netas and babus, too.

Minister around, the Senator invites Minister for dinner to his house. House is a huge big mansion with scores of rooms, swimming pools, tennis courts, gyms, basket ball and what not. The Minister is very impressed and says so. The Senator takes the Minister to a window overlooking the river and a modern marvel of a bridge over the river. The Senator whispers, see that bridge? It cost $ 10m, my take 20% - that's this mansion.