The ushering in of the 8th Plan also boosted the sector, with the government offering sweeteners like customs free import of capital goods for the infrastructure sector and sops like tax holidays. The road sector’s fate was sealed in gold, with the announcement of the Golden Quadrilateral, National Highways Development Program and North-South, East-West corridors that totalled 25,000 km in length, with funding from World Bank and Asian Development Bank and a specially formed kitty replenished with a cess on petrol and diesel.

The result: a 33 lakh km road network that connects almost 60 per cent of all villages in the country, up from 45 per cent just a decade ago. The frenetic pace in road development is mirrored by an equal enthusiasm in the Railways. From a shattered system that had borne the brunt of the depression of the 1930s and the onslaught of the Second World War, rendering a major part of its assets obsolete and overused at the time of independence, the Railways have made a sharp comeback and registered a stunning financial turnaround with Rs 20,000 crore surplus this year.

Rather than expand its network (which has remained more or less stagnant since 1950, growing from 53,000 km to 63,000 km currently), the railways embarked upon a plan of electrification in the 1960s, seeking to phase out old steam locomotives. At the same time, it also set up wagon and locomotive manufacturing facilities in places like Benaras and Chennai, obviating the need for imports that had earlier been the norm. In the 1970s, the emphasis turned to replacing wooden 4-wheeler wagons with the now-prevalent box wagons and later, a uni-gauge policy was embraced.

... contd.