Fast track courts for infrastructure delays in India?

Dwarka Expressway under construction

Infrastructure is really India's biggest problem when it comes to attracting foreign investment. The second problem is the lack of ease of doing business and corruption. But in this post we are only going to look at certain aspects of lack of infrastructure. We will look at other aspects of this in later posts.

One of the reasons of lack of infrastructure is simply because ongoing infrastructure projects are severely delayed. Let's take the example of the Northern Peripheral Road (NPR) more popularly known as the Dwarka Expressway.

When this road was announced almost half  a decade ago, it brought cheer to real estate market with the hope of having a new alternative to NH-8. Construction of 14 out of the 18 kilometres in Haryana is already completed. However, 4 kms of this stretch (not contiguous but divided into 200 M here and 300 M there, you get it). But these patches were mired in litigation and unfortunately our legal system took about 3-4 years to clear that litigation.

Now when we hear of certain types of crime, we ask for swift justice. We say there should be 'fast-track courts' to punish and sentence offenders. Agreed. But my question is - why can't we have fast track courts for infrastructure projects in our country when that is the biggest challenge being faced?

We can. We should andI appeal to all governments and honourable courts in this nation to consider this and in the interests of national development make it happen.

- Prashant Solomon (MD, Chintels & Credai NCR Treasurer). Follow him on Twitter: @prasol