Why Indian Roads aren't as good as the US ones?
There is a reason for this that is rooted in Civil Engineering. Thomas Tharu, who is one of the finest engineers I know, showed me a monograph he’d written about this topic a while back. It was a fascinating scientific insight into a problem that most of us dismiss with a non-scientific explanation like corruption. (Asphalt) roads around the world have pretty much the same construction. There is a layer of gravel (I’ve heard it called ‘jelly’ in Chennai and possibly the rest of India too) and on top of that, there’s asphalt - a concrete mixture with a substantial bituminous / tar component. The asphalt is mildly permeable and can deform to bear very heavy loads; the gravel layer underneath and the basic soil itself provide the structural strength for the road to ‘re-form’ after plastic deformation by a truck or bus that passes over it. If you observe the degradation of Indian roads carefully, you will find one remarkably consistent property: roads are not destroyed during reg