Infrastructure at Crossroads: The Challenges of Governance

Physical infrastructure has a significant impact on economic growth, quality of life, and poverty reduction. This collection of essays, by a senior bureaucrat, tells the inside story of India’s infrastructure sector-where it is, where it should be, and what is stopping it from getting there. It weaves together political, institutional, and economic threads into a comprehensive narrative to illustrate the complexities involved in the provision of infrastructure. Focusing on the problems of governance, it underscores the dilemmas faced by policymakers in providing critical infrastructure.

The book also offers a nuanced portrayal of the processes involved in the different stages, from conception to implementation, of infrastructure projects through diverse case studies-roads, railways, ports, airports, telecom, and power. It outlines strategies to overcome current bottlenecks and provides suggestions for policy reform.