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PerspectiveConnectivity as Key Component inInfrastructure DevelopmentBy Asok Mookerjee, Chairman, LEA Associates South Asia & Director,Indo Canadian Business Chamber &Subir Kumar Poddar, Consultant (Highways), LEA Associates South AsiaCharles Dickenswrote “ .... it was thebest of times, it wasthe worst of times, itwas the age ofwisdom, it was theage of foolishness....”. The lastdecade, when Indiacould scale newheights indeveloping its roadinfrastructure, canpossibly be bestdescribed in thesame vein as whatDickens reflectedupon a bygoneepoch.It is essentially sobecause the pacethat had to be puti n t o t h edevelopment, quitenaturally, dido u t p a c edevelopmentpertinent to anumber of otherconcurrent aspects.India has essentially a rural-oriented economy with 74percent of its population living in villages and 60 percentof its GDP agro-based. An all-inclusive infrastructuredevelopment thus naturally has to be the one thatprovides for connectivity to the bulk of its rural mass,which in turn would most appropriately complement thedevelopments of the trunk-routes that now are beingemphasised mostly. Once achieved, such acomprehensive infrastructure would furtheraccelerate the recorded socio-economic growths bysupplementing the government's investments intime-bound business plans (like Bharat Nirman), thePMGSY etc and thereby reaping the intendedeconomic benefits.Continuing from what stated at the onset here, it isappreciated in all quarters that a sustainabledevelopment and essentially the one of augmentinginfrastructure lending an all-weather connectivity toa bulk of India's population is colossally contingenton having the pedestals set on lessons learnt fromthe past decade.As learnt from these lessons while the desiredsymbiosis of contemporaneous aspects doesprimarily necessitate a comprehensive capacitybuilding, the metamorphosis into an equitabledevelopment does require intrepid steps towardsensuring green roads. The subsequent sectionsdelve into the integral constituents of the aforesaidaspects that need to be dovetailed into the processof having a consummate rural road-infrastructuredevelopment.Capacity Building in Road SectorThe challenges in achieving the target have to befaced with full preparedness. And suchpreparedness necessarily hinges on how adeptly weaccomplish the most important task of an all-roundCapacity Building, encompassing management,technology and equipment, materials, humanresource capacities thereby fostering the muchneeded motivation to all the stake-holders.Accordingly, it is appreciated that besides afocussed Research & Development (R&D),facilitating a long-term maintenance too necessarilydeserves apt attention in order to precipitate thecapacity-development efforts into tangible and18Indo-Canadian Business October - December 2011