32-hour jam on Indore-Dewas Road, 3 deaths: 3 die amid medical emergencies as vehicles stuck for hours; heart, cancer patients couldn’t get help in time - Madhya Pradesh News
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A massive 32-hour-long traffic jam on the Indore-Dewas Road turned deadly, claiming lives of three people trapped in bottleneck, including a heart patient and a cancer patient. Over 4,000 vehicles were stranded in an 8-kilometre-long gridlock that began Friday morning. The fatalities highlight the life-threatening consequences of unregulated traffic snarls on this crucial route. | A massive 32-hour-long traffic jam on the Indore-Dewas Road turned deadly, claiming lives of three people trapped in bottleneck, including a heart patient and a cancer patient. Over 4,000 vehicles were stranded in an 8-kilometre-long gridlock that began Friday morning. The fatalities highlight the life-threatening

The highway in question is cratered with potholes due to shoddy, cut-rate roadwork that disintegrates at the first sign of inclement weather.

The worst part? There’s a train between those same two cities, but the state of the railways in this country is beyond the pale, ironically because the government is pretending to invest in shiny new roads that…are cratered with potholes and disintegrate at the first sign of inclement weather.

  • Life is Tetris@leminal.spaceEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    We happen to have a public-sector-only rail system, with low ticket prices on most trains. I don’t know how much it costs to keep the majority of routes, subsidized as they are. Maybe the vanity projects with high-ticket prices will help with that. I believe the bigger expenditure perennially has been on personnel, as IR has lakhs of employees. That can’t be wished away.

    • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      I don’t know how much it costs to keep the majority of routes, subsidized as they are.

      Passenger transport is subsidized by goods transport. And the more expensive classes aren’t as subsidized.

      Maybe the vanity projects with high-ticket prices will help with that.

      But previous ministers didn’t need to do all that! And most Vande Bharaths or whatever run with empty seats, while general compartments on normal trains are overcrowded. So there is a misallocation of resources.

      I believe the bigger expenditure perennially has been on personnel

      I don’t know if they are correctly allotting staff to various roles. After one recent accident, it was found that the safety section was understaffed. But in any case, staff can be reassigned, while an unnecessary infrastructure project cannot later be repurposed to do something necessary.

      • Life is Tetris@leminal.spaceEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        All good points. I mentioned their lakhs of employees, because that bill keeps rising and probably faster than income. It is the public sector - they will waste money on unnecessary things - but they need to keep up with the personnel bill additionally. That combination means they need to generate money from somewhere.

        I think government funding patterns have changed, and ministries have been looking to generate funds rather than be funded by the exchequer. Think BSNL, NHAI. So too IR?