Road journeys in India

Last weekend, while travelling to Alewar, I realised a few things about road journeys in India. First, we still have a long way to go when it comes to road etiquette. Trucks routinely travel on the fast lane at slow speed, and often on the wrong side of the carriageway. No wonder even grade separation is no guarantee of road safety.

Leading on from that, faster-moving traffic ��� read, passenger cars and vans ��� are forced to overtake from the wrong side. And that too, at alarmingly high speeds, and with split-second timing. Cars are also disinclined to use their indicator while overtaking, or even slowing down for a pitstop at a petrol pump or roadside dhaba.

These pumps and dhabas have spruced up enormously, but are still woefully short on basic roadside amenities like clean toilets and drinking water supplies. Even if they charge patrons for usage, spic and span utilities would surely be a great draw. Is that too much to ask for?

The absence of these amenities at gas stations (the norm in western countries) has proved to be a boon for the numerous ���motels��� that have sprung up on high volume tourist routes. In order to use the washroom services, tourists inevitably add a tea break ��� business that would otherwise have gone to a tea/softdrinks kiosk at a petrol pump or dhaba.

Rajasthan, however, does have prominent emergency phonebooths at short intervals, a feature I also noticed on the excellent East Coast Highway from Chennai to Pondicherry. But I don���t know if they work!

Clearly there���s loads of scope for improvement on the roads ahead...