Driving along the Golden Quadrilateral

Drove down from Bangalore to Madras yesterday (having grown up in Madras, can never bring myself to call it Chennai, ugh !)

Was so surprised by the quality of roads along the way. Where there were bottle-necks, it was because fresh roads were being laid and construction work was going on.

Last month, my husband and I went on a road trip around Karnataka. Again, was very impressed by the superb quality of roads all along the way.

Why do I always expect the worst from Indian infrastructure ? and get surprised when things are better than I expected ?

This route is part of the ambitious Golden Quadrilateral Project, touted to be Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s dream of connecting India through more than 14000 km of road networks running through the length and breadth of the country.

If this route is any indicator of things to come, I look forward to the days when road travel in India is a pleasure. Imagine what this will do for tourism. For the transport business. For rural development.