Friday, February 4, 2011

A Jumbo Project

A real Grand Trunk Road - an underpass built in Kenya so that the elephants get to safely cross over to the forest without either endangering their lives or that of the motorists.  Totally built with donor funds.

We have many jumbo projects in our city.  One underpass that is nearing completion after over three years....

They had to get the permission of the railways and that took time.  Makes you wonder why they ever started off without the permission.

And another one

which took seven years for completion..... all because half way through, they realised they did not know where to end the flyover!! 

Which really is the jumbo project?

17 comments:

  1. Shows that if we want or if the GOVT wants then they can do things on time and properly BUT they wont ...


    Bikram's

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  2. What a biting sarcasm!!Such things do happen like I read about a flyover on a road where there was no traffic at all

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  3. Total mismanagement can lead to even a miniscule task looking like a jumbo project. With the lackadaisical attitude of our people, bureaucracy, corruption, mismanagement and what not, wonder what the outcome would be if we had to take up a jumbo project akin to that in Kenya.

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  4. Really liked your selection of pictures for this post!

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  5. Irresponsibility, lack of governance and non accountability.

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  6. Sleepy government projects. The projects would have been over if they had got a hefty personal amount.

    They did not know where to end the flyover?! How did they get the drawing approval?

    Where is our country going?

    Felt happy to read the 'real jumbo project'!

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  7. We can do anything that we want to. Now, the question is ofcourse, what do we really 'want' !

    I guess, what is really 'wanted' by powers that be are provided for !

    :)

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  8. Hope the travel will be smooth for the coming generations.

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  9. Frankly speaking every project undertaken in India take years to finish. i have been hearing of a bridge that was to be built across a river near our house ever since my marriage in 1973 and it took 37 years to get started. In the meanwhile the river is now just a brooklet in summer and people cross it by foot to get to the other side. Sinking sand in several places has taken away precious lives but no one really cares. Jumbo project indeed.

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  10. If the govt. really wanted to, it could finish these projects much sooner! The will is missing, I suppose.

    Interesting picture of the 'real' Jumbo Underpass.:)

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  11. What an contrast in the attitude of the people.

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  12. Imagine that concrete, man-made underpass becoming a fixture in their migration routes. Still, it's better than have them involved in accidents, like the instances of trains running over elephants in India.

    We've a few of those underpasses for animals back here in our country, but too few to actually make a difference.

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  13. @Bikramjit,BK Chowla - True. But all the time?
    @KP - we have those of the kind you mention too.
    @RGB - Same - mismanagement, corruption and all..
    @Indian Bazaar - Thank you
    @Sandhya - Jumbo budgets to match, most of them as you say is unaccounted for
    @Kavi - another scam for sure
    @Hip Grandma - the life of the common man in India has no value!
    @Manju - no it is not the will..
    @Rajesh - very true
    @Anil P - irony indeed! But then times have changed! I read we have these in India too. Any idea where they are located?

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  14. Is the second picture from Hyd? Lower Tank Bund road to Secretariat? Someone told me they started building it from each side and when the two sides were to meet at the middle, they realised that due to wrong calculations the meeting could not happen. Is that true?!!!

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  15. @Deepa - No they did not start it at both ends. They just did not know where to end the flyover. And then they had to relocate a statue and the sewerage pipes. So for the few years that we had this half built flyover, it was made available for film shooting and otherwise for parking!!! All public money. And all this right opposite the Secretariat!

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  16. There are worse examples in Kerala.And leave alone the quality of construction.It is better for us not to build such passages,they might fall down on to the poor elephants !After all,they have their natural instincts to protect them!

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  17. It's impossible to imagine such things in India for obvious reasons.

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