On 11th August 2014, there was a news article in the Economic Times titled "Akin to railways, aviation ministers handing out airport projects to please voters" [1]. I found this interesting since this brings out the influence of politics on infrastructure projects, an aspect that is often overlooked and overpowered by financial and technical perspectives in discussions about projects.
The articles mentioned that "Andhra Pradesh is the new focus area for the civil aviation ministry which, with a politician from the state heading it, has set the wheels in motion to develop three international airports in the state, including one to be built from scratch." I wouldn't so much focus on the particular state or minister as much as I'd like to focus on the fact that many a times, projects are unnecessarily taken up to please voters. In this particular case, the three airports that are slated to be given international status are Tirupati, Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam, with the former two being upgradation projects and the last being an entirely new development.
All three of these cities face shortages of basic amenities [2] [3] and the capital and expertise invested in the construction of airports could have been channeled to tackle these fundamental problems rather than using them to construct international airports, which, in fact are not even needed. With the national carrier Air India operating out of its hubs in T3 Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and T2 Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai [4], what every other city needs to have is a domestic airport of international standards instead of having an international airport that is underutilised. Moreover, the presence of an international airport in the state at Hyderabad further renders the development of more airports unnecessary. A passenger travelling to the US or Europe is typically taken to one of the hubs and then flown out of the country. For short distance flights to the Middle-East or the Far-East, mid sized international airports of Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore etc. are more than capable of handling the present and future traffic volumes.
A classic case of how underutilised these projects become is the Raja Bhoj airport in Bhopal, the city where I hail from, that was upgraded to handle international air traffic in 2011 but the only international flights that are operated out of the airport are the seasonal Hajj flights operated by Saudia, Bhopal being a city with a considerable Muslim population. The upgrade did instill a sense of pride among the residents of Bhopal when it happened but now it is felt that maybe those funds could have been used to speed up the implementation of the Bhopal Bus Rapid Transit System or the Narmada Pipeline which address much more fundamental issues that the city faces.
It is obvious that these projects are taken up by politicians to please the voters in their constituency because of the mileage that association with terms such as 'international' generate. It would be interesting to see what becomes of these airports over the next few years since quite clearly, these aren't well thought out projects aimed at developmental or social gains as much as they are aimed at ensuring the continuation of political reigns.
The articles mentioned that "Andhra Pradesh is the new focus area for the civil aviation ministry which, with a politician from the state heading it, has set the wheels in motion to develop three international airports in the state, including one to be built from scratch." I wouldn't so much focus on the particular state or minister as much as I'd like to focus on the fact that many a times, projects are unnecessarily taken up to please voters. In this particular case, the three airports that are slated to be given international status are Tirupati, Vijayawada and Vishakhapatnam, with the former two being upgradation projects and the last being an entirely new development.
All three of these cities face shortages of basic amenities [2] [3] and the capital and expertise invested in the construction of airports could have been channeled to tackle these fundamental problems rather than using them to construct international airports, which, in fact are not even needed. With the national carrier Air India operating out of its hubs in T3 Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and T2 Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai [4], what every other city needs to have is a domestic airport of international standards instead of having an international airport that is underutilised. Moreover, the presence of an international airport in the state at Hyderabad further renders the development of more airports unnecessary. A passenger travelling to the US or Europe is typically taken to one of the hubs and then flown out of the country. For short distance flights to the Middle-East or the Far-East, mid sized international airports of Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore etc. are more than capable of handling the present and future traffic volumes.
A classic case of how underutilised these projects become is the Raja Bhoj airport in Bhopal, the city where I hail from, that was upgraded to handle international air traffic in 2011 but the only international flights that are operated out of the airport are the seasonal Hajj flights operated by Saudia, Bhopal being a city with a considerable Muslim population. The upgrade did instill a sense of pride among the residents of Bhopal when it happened but now it is felt that maybe those funds could have been used to speed up the implementation of the Bhopal Bus Rapid Transit System or the Narmada Pipeline which address much more fundamental issues that the city faces.
It is obvious that these projects are taken up by politicians to please the voters in their constituency because of the mileage that association with terms such as 'international' generate. It would be interesting to see what becomes of these airports over the next few years since quite clearly, these aren't well thought out projects aimed at developmental or social gains as much as they are aimed at ensuring the continuation of political reigns.
- [1] http://goo.gl/JrMTf6
- [2] http://goo.gl/DI6wuu
- [3] http://goo.gl/wHWGWC
- [4] http://goo.gl/QiIxm8
7 comments:
This is not new to any of us and one of the most typical cases were the railway budgets, which clearly gave off the legislature of the current minister. With the entire democracy being run by cheap vote bank politics, i dont think we are going to get out of this curse anytime soon. Else we need to have really noble politicians who enter polictics to serve nation and not to "remain" in power.
Sad that unless a region can produce any ministers it cannot gain many projects or funds in India.
Instead of building newer airports the government should invest in intercity transport, like high speed road network or rail network. Improving present airports along with can cater to most needs of Indian travellers. Also better intercity transit have numerous added benefits. So I it will have higher returns than building new airports, at the same time satisfying voters.
Hey Neelotpal, Well said. Indeed politicians apply a lot of pressure and many projects are merely a tool for their publicity and those projects rarely serve the people. But, we should not forget the fact that the politicians are hungry for positive publicity (of course Money! but that remains in the backstage) and not specific about the projects with few exceptions. So, in my view, the bureaucrats can take the hungriness of politicians to their advantage and sell those projects which are really essential for the society. Unfortunately, our bureaucrats are not that efficient in serving the people and they are just warming themselves in the fire set by politicians (talking about money). Therefore, what we need is not only a group of sensible politicians but also a group of responsible bureaucrats in order to march ahead in terms of development.
This is the case with almost every district of the India. Despite district magistrate presenting the cost benefit analysis to the MLA of the area, concern MLA are lured by the votes which are supreme to them and this wastes the tax payers money at the cost of infeasible projects. The nearest example is building the water storage tanks in village where MLA chose location based on where people are of their caste or their clan. These tanks are built keeping aside the conditions to be fulfilled by the gram panchayat which ensures within 1 km, where there is no permanent source of the water such as tube well or well.
This shows these MLA’s only care for the votes and not the feasibility of the project
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