Substack

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Infrastructure facts - India Vs China

The 1318 km Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail link, the longest in the world, and constructed within three years at a cost of $33 bn, is just one in the long list of mega infrastructure projects that China has been executing. To just put this in perspective, the total outlay for India's flagship urban development program, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, covering 64 largest cities in the country, including the metros, and spread over five years (2005-10) was slightly more than $20 bn.

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL), built at a cost of Rs 1800 Cr (or ~$400 mn), several years behind schedule and with substantial cost over-runs, was greeted with much national rejoicing as further proof of our arrival as a big economic power. The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the world's longest cross-sea bridge project, was built at a cost of $16 bn.

The comparison with China is truly humbling. However, this is neither an endorsement of the Chinese model of investment driven economic growth nor of mega-infrastructure projects in general. The contrast is drawn merely to put in perspective the infrastructure investment challenges facing emerging India.

2 comments:

Nishant Sharma said...

Indians are slacker according to facts provided.We need to be more dynamic.

sai prasad said...

I dont know if they are challenges that we need to address at all.

Whewre is the limit? what is needed ?
U have already written about the ghost cities in china with huge mega-infrastructure lieing idle.