An infrastructure mess in cox town, bangalroe

One of the best examples of infrastructure mess in India should be the Cox Town (Bangalore) over bridge. The only demand of the residents over there was a small over bridge over the railway gate which would ensure that traffic does not come to stand still when a train passes. As fate would have it our system does not like to do anything simple and sleek. Instead they went into for nearly a KM long flyover and the construction of the same is going on for years and possibly for a few more.
Reasons for delay is one part of the woe but the main woe is did Cox Town require such a swanky flyover? Why is that in our system any infrastructure solution is big? Why can’t we think small and effective? Does it pay for the powers to be of our system, if a project is big?
Ask anybody who has been to Cox town during the pre-flyover construction days, they will tell you that such a big bridge was a total waste. Cox town was a locality developed by the Britishers and Wheeler Road (where the bridge is being built) had wide roads to rival any locality in Bangalore even from the 80’s. The road was easily divided and there was no problem in the flow of the traffic. All that was required was a small flyover or underpass, at the railway interjections to avoid clustering of traffic. Subsequent to the construction of the mega-flyover, all the small businesses in the main road will get badly affected. The bridge is getting completed perennially. All that citizens can do is to take out frequent protest rallies
Cox town flyover is one of the many infrastructure messes of this country. We build mega flyovers and bridges where it is not required. The projects never get completed on time further inconvincing people. Can we never think small and sleek when it comes to infrastructure project? Why invest on projects which have no need in the first instance? It maybe glamorous to go in for big projects, but let these people remember two things, the project is being executed at the cost of the tax payer’s money and second the money can be used elsewhere more profitability even for building a flyover elsewhere.