Time To Divert Money From Uneconomic Road Construction To Defence and Oil Exploration In Andaman And Brahmputra Basin
Rajiv Upadhyay
If some thing has defined India’s growth in last ten years it is the Highway Construction at record pace . India has added 95000 kms of highway in last ten years which is truly a remarkable achievement . But those of us who know details know that now the law of diminishing returns has started working in this sector. Since the days Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee dreamt of Golden quadrilateral and rural road development, India has truly changed.
But it has eaten bulk of capital expenditure of the government and this year India will spend 2.87 lakh crore on roads and highways .Road construction . In addition NHAI has a total debt of 3-35 lakh crore . In contrast Defence capital acquisition budget is 1.81 lakh crore . Similarly ONGC and other PSUs will spend 1.21 lakh crore on oil and gas exploration . Only ten percent of our sedimentary basin is explored . Similarly India needs to build at least six months of strategic crude oil reserves against ten days at present .
Time has come to review the national priorities now . Defence capital expenditure has been a long story of neglect worst being the air force acquisition of Multi Role Aircraft . In last twenty years we have just bought thirty six Rafales and against requirement of 42 squadrons we are operating with about 32 squadrons including ancient museum pieces like MIG 21 and Jaguars .We are absolutely guilty of repeating Pandit Nehru and Krishna Menon mistake of depending on diplomacy to avoid war and hoping for the best luck !
Similarly due to tectonic plate pressures the possibility of oil reserves being found is very high in Andaman . Similarly Brahmputra basin is another promising area . But for a decade we did not explore these areas and even now we are planning drilling of just four wells in Andaman !
Time has come to reduce our expenditure on Roads and divert money to oil and gas exploration and Defence acquisition . The expenditure in both these heads needs to be doubled in larger national interest as Roads are now giving diminishing returns .
Sh Nitin Gadkari may be made in charge of these projects as National Projects as he is the only minister who can shake and move the entrenched Babudom .
In ten years he will make these sectors a pride of modern India just as he has done with Highways and Ports.
