Urban India stands at a decisive crossroads. As our cities expand at an unprecedented pace, the true promise of urbanization increasingly depends on the strength, inclusiveness, and resilience of our transportation systems. Mobility is far more than the movement of people, it anchors economic growth and determines access to jobs, education, and opportunity. Yet our roads and transit networks expose deep structural shortcomings: inadequate safety, limited affordability, and design choices that routinely overlook the needs of the most vulnerable.
Against this backdrop, Jagan Shah, CEO of Infravision Foundation and former Director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), shared powerful insights in an exclusive conversation with The Interview World at the FICCI Urban Transportation Conclave 2025. He underscored transportation’s central role in advancing urbanization, examined the urgent need for more inclusive and safer road systems, and emphasized how mobility will shape India’s journey toward becoming a developed nation by 2047.
Here are the key takeaways from his compelling conversation.
Q: How are urbanization and transportation connected, and why is transportation important for improving urbanization?
A: Urbanization thrives on the economies of scale that emerge when large numbers of people concentrate in one place. As diverse skills and talents converge, they generate the very diversity that fuels value creation, especially in today’s service-driven cities, which now function primarily as hubs of services.
Because of this, urbanization is inseparable from economic activity. Transportation, in turn, is the crucial enabler of that activity. Whether a trader delivers goods to a retail store, a school bus brings children to class, or an office commuter travels to work each morning, each movement forms an essential link in the nation’s economic chain. Without transportation, none of these activities would function, and economic growth would stall.
The question of whether transportation is privately or publicly owned is secondary. What ultimately matters is that the system’s supply keeps pace with society’s growing demand.
Q: To what extent are our roads inclusive and capable of facilitating the transportation demands that will drive future economic growth?
A: Our transport systems are far from inclusive. They consistently assume a young, able-bodied male user, someone in his twenties or early thirties who can easily walk, board, and navigate every mode of transport. As a result, we overlook people with disabilities, neglect the needs of the elderly, and ignore the vulnerabilities faced by many women. The system fails them because it was never designed with them in mind.
Moreover, we have barely begun to assess whether these systems are even affordable. Evidence already shows that metro usage is limited simply because fares are too high, making daily travel a significant burden for many. The same issue appears on our highways: for instance, the new Dwarka Expressway toll is ₹220, even for a short 5-kilometre trip. After paying that amount the other day, I am already considering an alternative route, because such a cost is unsustainable for everyday travel.
Ultimately, inclusion requires that we consider real people when planning infrastructure and setting tariffs. Yet that basic step is missing. We fail to understand who our users actually are, and, in doing so, we design systems that exclude far too many.
Q: How safe are our roads?
A: Our roads are extremely unsafe because we neither build them properly nor maintain them well. The obvious lesson is to improve, first, the technologies we use, and even more importantly, the quality standards we enforce during construction. Yet we fail on both fronts. We rarely test roads thoroughly before paying contractors, and we seldom examine the full range of quality parameters.
Consequently, our roads deteriorate quickly. They remain chronically waterlogged, and asphalt and water are utterly incompatible. When streets are left submerged, the pavement will inevitably disintegrate. We see this even in high-profile areas, including those near major airports.
This persistent failure exposes a deeper structural problem: the system rewards poor performance. Repeated contracts for repaving crumbling roads benefit someone, and no one earns a profit by delivering durable assets. If we allow people to profit from building substandard infrastructure, then we, as a society, must ask ourselves difficult questions. Are we truly acting in our own collective interest, or are we sustaining a cycle that undermines our welfare?
Q: What role will transportation play in enabling India to achieve developed-nation status by 2047?
A: Robust transportation is one of the clearest indicators of a truly developed nation. Yet the poor condition of our roads, combined with alarmingly high fatality rates, reveals how far we remain from that goal. A country becomes developed only when it cares enough about its people to invest the extra effort required to make its roads genuinely safe. Unfortunately, we are not meeting that standard, and our current performance shows it.
