An Economic Evaluation of Investment on Road Transportation in India

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether road users in India as a class pay more of less than the cost incurred by Government in providing and operating the road system. Despite the obvious importance of the subject, there has been very little systematic attempt made to determine the extent to which road users bear the cost of facilities provided to them. The main difficulty arises because of lack of reliable data on road revenues and expenditures, particularly the data on capita] investments made in road construction over a period of time. Moreover, there is also the most difficult methodological problem of estimating the value of capital embedded in the road system.