Cheap Roadside Advice

India, and particularly Noida, seems besieged with road construction activity. With so much business and residential growth here it is understandable that new roads are constantly being built. The old avenues are in need of repair from the traffic pounding they take. And of course what is underneath them - sewers, gas lines, water mains - these are being added or repaired as well.My complaint about all this necessary activity (aside from the dust) is what seems to be a general lack of empathy for the neighborhoods in which these projects occur. Job sites are really disorganized here. Beautiful roads are being built or resurfaced before water lines are completed, before sewers are installed. And once each construction project has been "completed" the refuse never seems to be hauled off. The construction-waste remains piled on the side of the road for months and sometimes years. Piles of broken sewer pipes, dirt, concrete, and unused bricks can be seen everywhere. Beautifully constructed roads never seem fully finished because of all the mess that is left behind.

If development is the goal, it always comes with a price. State and local governments here need to figure out how to coordinate projects in an order that makes sense. More importantly, they must push project managers to make it a priority to clean up after each phase of work is done. Citizens would be safer and happier, and neighborhoods would start to look, frankly, more developed.