India is catching up on infra but it’s yet to bridge the gap

India has witnessed much jubilation about becoming the fastest growing major nation, overtaking China. And so many projects are being inaugurated with fanfare as great feats worthy of the ‘Voice of the South’. Last week, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Atal Setu, crossing from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, acclaimed as the longest sea bridge in India.It is surely a major feat by Indian standards. But let’s show some humility, and admit that as far as bridges go, other countries are far ahead.The longest sea bridge in the world has been built by China linking Hong Kong and Macau. It is more ambitious than the Atal Setu, and has been built to withstand typhoons common in the area. It is 55 km long, against 21.8 km for the Atal Setu. Both bridges include land sections, and the sea sections are 22.9 km for the Hong-Kong-Macau link, against 16.5 km for the Atal Setu.The Jiaozhou sea bridge spans 42.5 km across Jiaozhou Bay. When it opened back in 2011, it was the longest sea bridge. The Hangzhou Bay bridge, 35.7 km long, was opened still earlier in 2008. The Donghai bridge connecting Shanghai with the offshore deep-water port of Yangshan is 32.5 km long. The Jintang bridge connecting Jintang Island with Zhenhai province is 26 km long. China is, of course, famous for its great infrastructure feats, but other developing countries are not far behind. In Malaysia, the second Penang bridge, connecting Penang Island with the Malaysian mainland, is 24 km long and was completed in 2014.Bahrain is an island a long distance from the Saudi Arabian coast. The King Fahd causeway, 25 km long, a series of bridges and causeways, has connected the two countries since 1986. Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien bridge in Brunei is 30 km long, including sections over sea and land. It was opened in 2020.India is poorer than all these countries. That is a legitimate reason for lagging behind. It is also a reason for humility.India boasted the third longest railway network in the world at independence, behind the US and USSR. China’s network was small and fragmented. Today, it has a route length of 150,000 km against India’s 68,000 km. It has built a railway link across Central Asia connecting all the way to Western Europe. It has also built a railway line all the way from Beijing to Lhasa in Tibet. This goes at such a high altitude that passengers require oxygen.This year, the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project is expected to be inaugurated. This will connect the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country. However, this accomplishment has come 76 years after independence, even though Kashmir is viewed as a top security priority. No doubt the Himalayan terrain is difficult. But so many other countries have built railways in even steeper mountains. medium107016400A prime example is Switzerland. Today it is a rich country, but in the 19th century, it was not well off. Unemployed Swiss males used to offer themselves as mercenaries in foreign armies (one of whom featured in George Bernard Shaw’s famous play ‘Arms And The Man’). But when railways began to be built in Europe, Switzerland soon developed the expertise for extraordinary feats, building tracks at very steep heights.The most spectacular example is the Jungfraujoch train. This was built by drilling a tunnel into the rock of the Eiger-Monch-Jungfrau range, one of the highest in Switzerland. The railway tunnel starts at Kleine Scheidegg at an altitude of 6,762 feet, and goes steeply up to emerge on a snowbound glacial saddle between the Monch and Jungfrau peaks at 11, 362 feet. This is a phenomenal upward rise of 4,500 feet through solid rock. It allows passengers to travel to the top of the Alps and even engage in winter sports like skiing and tobogganing.The Jungfraujoch railway was started in 1896 and completed in 1912. Even a century later, visitors find it absolutely stunning to travel through solid rock and emerge at the snow-covered top. This shows how advanced railway building in steep mountains (and through them) was even back in 1896.By now, of course, Switzerland has built several tunnels right through the Alps, providing high speed rail and road connections with Italy to the South. China has proposed an even more ambitious feat, tunnelling right through the Himalayas to connect Lhasa and Kathmandu. India has a long way to catch up.