When I first learned that the word “path” is derived from a Sanskrit word, “पथ,” I felt elated. The world learned what “path” means from us, and used it for its betterment. For centuries, Indians knew the importance of roads in connecting communities, facilitating trade and garnering prosperity. The Indus Valley road system still fascinates historians. “Uttarapatha”, the first internationally renowned road connecting Central Asia to Southeast Asia, as attested by the Greek explorer Megasthenes, was at its prime during Mauryan rule at least five centuries before the evolution of the Silk Road. “Sadak-e-Azam”, a road from Dhaka to Kabul, built by Sher Shah Suri and his Mughal successors, was a milestone in the medieval world. India, which furthered its economic prosperity by placing an emphasis on road-building and global standard setting throughout history failed to keep up the momentum in the 20th century.

The 165 km Taj expressway is a remarkable feat that demands celebration. This finest marvel of modern India is visible from space, along with the Ahemdabad-Vododra and Mumbai-Pune expressways, which measure in at an impressive 95 and 93 km respectively. However, none of these networks match the 522 km Peshawar-Islamabad-Lahore motorway (M1 and M2) that our poor “western” neighbor has built. And guess what, it is also visible from space!

Today, India operates a network of less than 1500 kilometers of expressways, which dwarfs in comparison to China’s 85000 km expressway network that’s already in place and running. China’s expressway network now ranks second after the 92000 km US interstate network.

Our northeastern neighbor has already outclassed several internationally renowned road networks, including the British motorways, the German autobahns and the Spanish autopistas. Its 2284 km Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau expressway (G4) is no less superior to the world’s most renowned 4990 km US interstate, the I-90 (Seattle–Boston). China’s expressway network has exhibited an alarming growth rate of over 20% each year since 1998, completing its target 15 years early.

India is still mulling over implementation of the expressways conceived in 1998. The ambitious projects, such as, Mumbai-Vadodra and Delhi-Jaipur are being built at a crawling pace. Once the planned expressways on the Indian west coast are complete, India would indeed have a seamless connectivity between Delhi and Mumbai, significantly reducing driving time on this 1157 km stretch. A taxing 30 hour journey would be reduced to ten.

India’s dream of building a network of 15000 Km expressways by 2022 can be realized, but at the current pace – not until 2050!!!