黑洞社区

Q: What were the key projects you worked on in your time in India?

A: I was project manager for Mott MacDonald on the design of the Delhi Metro MC1B project throughout my stay in India.

Development around the Delhi metro line in the suburb of Dwarka. The
first phase in the centre of Delhi is complete.

Q: During your time there, what were the key changes that you witnessed?

A: Even in the relatively short period I was there, things changed immensely in the Delhi region. The number of private cars on the road rose dramatically along with the size/cost of these vehicles. During my first three months in Delhi, I saw about one Mercedes (and about the same small number of equivalent luxury cars) a day but by the time I left there were lots and Bentley was looking at opening a dealership.

After my first winter in Delhi, all public buses and auto-rickshaws were changed over to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). At first this was chaotic with insufficient CNG filling stations, which meant that drivers had to queue for up to a day just to fill up. However, the drop in pollution levels during the following winter was noticeable. Unfortunately, I think this drop in pollution may now have been cancelled out to a large degree by the sharp increase in cars.

I also noticed that the nightlife became far more vibrant, with more choices of venues attracting higher levels of patronage by the younger generation. On our arrival, there were very few good bars or restaurants and those that existed were all in 5-star hotels. By the time I left, the choice in restaurants and bars in local shopping areas was good with all manner of cuisine available.

Nearby in Gurgaon, shopping malls were springing out of the ground at a rapid pace. Small complexes with apartments and integral health clubs were under construction. All of this change points to the rapid emergence of a more affluent middle income group.

Q: In your opinion is India ready to become a major world player?

A: India is already a world player in certain fields, particularly in IT and has the potential to add to this in many other sectors.

Q: Can India鈥檚 infrastructure keep pace with the development going on in the cities?

A: From what I saw in Delhi, Bangalore and Cochin (Kochi) the pace of infrastructure development was unable to keep up with the demand. However positive steps are being taken, Delhi succeeded in building a metro quickly and the Delhi metro sections completed to date allow a 90 minute journey on the surface to be undertaken in six minutes!

I found the unreliable power supply in Delhi challenging, with delays at the planning stage preventing development of power stations, there were frequent and sometimes long blackouts. As a resident, I became accustomed to relying on a small standby generator or battery power to give me some power for the essentials during outages.

Generally I think there needs to be an enormous investment in infrastructure to meet the growth in demand.

Q: Much of India is still very rural. Do you sense a growing divide between life in the country and in the cities?

There are wide disparities not just between rural and urban India but also in the cities where you can see a huge contrast between rich and poor. This contrast was one of the more difficult things to come to terms with, particularly due to the close proximity between the two.

The Indian government does appear to be making big attempts to improve the situation of the rural poor as do programs supported by agencies such as DFID and the provision of cheap telephone systems does seem to be improving things. That said, my experience of rural India was minimal, and only when driving through it.

Q: Is India an easy place in which to do business?

A: India is not an 鈥渆asy鈥� place to do business due to the bureaucracy which was inherited from colonial times but neither is it particularly bad when compared with other countries around the world.

Q: Are India鈥檚 towers and landmark buildings being built with green issues in mind?

It is difficult to comment as my experience is limited to the Delhi Metro but in my personal opinion, green issues could be taken more seriously.

Q: Is India a good place to live and work?

I can鈥檛 speak for India as a whole but Delhi is a reasonably good place to live and work. Several of my friends who were there at the same time as me considered it to be a very child friendly place and therefore good for raising a young family. Going on holiday in the Himalayas and in Kerala was fantastic and with the advent of Indian budget airlines this was easily affordable. I would happily go and work in India again.

Q: If you had a single piece of advice to pass on to anyone thinking of going to India to work within the construction industry, what would it be?

If someone says it will be done tomorrow - don鈥檛 believe it.

Q: Would you say the ability to speak 鈥渃ricket鈥� was useful in business over there?

While not essential, I would say that knowledge of cricket gives us an advantage in creating good relationships with Indian colleagues and clients.