This is not exactly the way I would have loved to start my first post for the year. But this post was prompted by today's news that Bangalore much touted Namma Metro Rail project's Phase 1 Corridor rollout is about a year behind schedule ("will be operational by Sep 2015, promised Chief Minister Siddharamiah"), and burning ~Rs 2.5 crore additionally for every day of delay. And there is absolutely no accountability. BMRCL, the agency that is building and operating the rail project is let off, and there is no single government agency that has been tasked with oversight.
I have always felt that India lacks project management skills. None of our projects - public or private, end up being completed on time, within costs, as per quality norms. We don't have processes, we don't have good caliber specialists, we don't have the honesty to accept our shortcomings, and we don't have the will to learn.
This malaise is evident in every project across the length and breadth of India - rail upgrades, road construction, airports, urban infrastructure, oil terminals, public housing ...name it, and we suck. Private sector may be a shade better, but just a touch, I guess. And it infuriates me that the public is given a short shrift throughout this process. Of course, their opinions don't count ever - during the planning or execution. But worse still, there is no sense of responsibility in making the common man's life less miserable while these projects are being executed. Roads are shut or reduced to rubble, walkways disappear, sewage and water spill on to roads, yet none of these matter to the contractors, or the supervising agency.
Similarly, when private projects are executed, construction material are piled up on public roads, construction equipment use sparse space for their work, with absolutely no attempt from city administrations to reign in such rogue behaviour.
In short, projects are complete disasters. You could build a new airport terminal in Chennai, and be perfectly okay with a massive leak of the air conditioning plant on Day 1. You could build a new highway in Noida and it would just about a wee bit unfortunate that a family of five died on inauguration day because the contractor forgot to segregate up & down traffic lanes. Stories of such callousness of course abound. But such stories have absolutely no bearing on our collective conscience. Life moves on.
And finally, when projects are completed, there is absolutely no interest in making them truly complete. Aesthetics of course is given a go-by, which given our recent history, is not a surprise. But debris and material is left behind..for ever... as if it is none of their problem. Every new project, barring very very few, already look twenty-year old when it opens up for public use.
Once in a blue moon, a Sreedharan or a T N Seshan shows up. I just can't believe that an 80-year old man has to be pulled out of retirement to advise the railways on modernisation. Does it mean that the system has not thrown up a single individual of caliber in the last 20 years, who can replace a Sreedharan?
Pathetic. Wake up India. Get bloody f*(&^ing serious.
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