Noted banker Deepak Parekh on Wednesday attributed the ‘very poor’ quality of city roads to the Government's bidding process, saying that the lowest bidder will always make a ‘shabby road’. “Quality is very poor and every monsoon after rains, we have to redo the roads. This is because State Governments have to award to l1, to the lowest tender because their rules and regulations don’t permit... So the lowest contractor, lowest price bidder will always build a shabby road because he underbid it and so every year you have to spend,” he said.
Citing the example of Mumbai, he said, the authorities have blacklisted five contractors who will not participate after monsoon because their quality has been poor. His comments come after the visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry this morning remarked about Delhi rains and the ensuing traffic jams. “I don't know if you came in boats. But I salute you,” said a smiling Kerry to a packed audience at IIT, Delhi, after his motorcade was once again stuck in Delhi traffic as heavy rains led to waterlogging.
‘You guys deserve an award for being able to get here today. I don’t know if you came in boats or amphibious vehicles of some kind. But I salute you,” said Kerry who was forced to cancel his trip to three religious sites today in the city after incessant rains in the national capital. Parekh also observed that the car population in India has grown much much faster than what Government can manage. “In Delhi, you tried odd and even car, it didn't work. In Mumbai and Bangalore, we had the problem of not only traffic but quality of road,” he said. Parekh, who is the chairman of the country’s largest mortgage lender HDFC, said the Government needs to pay proper pricing for infrastructure building.