Dust-choked roads, bridges collapsing at breakneck speed, and schools reduced to rubble—this is the reality of our so-called ‘development’! In a country where billions of rupees from the public treasury are poured like water, the common people are left with shoddy work and broken promises. This contractor system has turned the nation’s progress into a looting spree, where quality is sacrificed at the altar of corruption. It’s a poison eating away at India’s development from within.

Big companies that win government tenders boast their capabilities on paper but subcontract the work to smaller contractors. These small players, already juggling multiple projects, drag the work on endlessly. Like an old poet reciting the same verse, the projects never seem to end. The 2023 CAG report screams that 60 per cent of road projects miss deadlines, with costs ballooning by 40-50 per cent. Is this mere negligence or a conspiracy?

Read in Hindi: नर्क का रास्ता है भारतीय 'विकास' का ठेकेदारी मॉडल...!

This isn’t just about wasting money—it’s about wasting lives. In 2022, a Mumbai flyover collapsed, swallowing five innocent lives. Investigations revealed the contractor mixed sand with cement! Driven by greed, they played with people’s lives. In 2023, a school roof in Bihar caved in, injuring 12 children. The reason? Substandard materials. NHAI data shows 30 per cent of newly built roads crumble in the first monsoon. Is this just a coincidence or a death trap?

Government officials and contractors collude to inflate costs. Once a tender is secured, work slows to a crawl, followed by demands for ‘additional budgets’, like a hungry wolf stalking its prey. A 2021 CBI case exposed a contractor who escalated a ₹100 crore project to ₹300 crore, with ₹50 crore funnelled to officials and politicians! This is the hard-earned money of our nation, squandered by such failures.

India has 15 lakh unemployed engineers, yet contractors employ unskilled laborours to cut costs and maximize profits. Institutes like IIT and NIT have technical expertise, but the government doesn’t entrust them with projects. Why? To keep the contractors’ ‘commission empire’ thriving! This isn’t necessity—it’s the endorsement of corruption.

The Howrah Bridge from the British era and Mughal forts still stand strong, but the roads built today don’t last two years! Is this the legacy we want for future generations? If the government doesn’t rein in this contractor mafia, ‘development’ will leave us with nothing but deceit, dust, and death.

The government should provide construction machinery for rent to entrepreneurs, enabling small contractors to deliver quality work and become self-reliant. Assign small projects to IIT and government college students to foster innovation and give them a platform to prove their skills. Impose heavy fines on contractors who miss deadlines and blacklist them permanently. No mercy!

This is the time to wake up, the time to change! Will we continue living in this darkness or step toward the light?