Twenty-eight years on north Indian roads

Mandate

Run all six concessions to a common operating, safety and maintenance standard while the trust's distributions depend on their cash.

Outcomes

• Rebuilt a flood-damaged bridge approach at ₹7.4 crore rather than patching it
• Median response time on one high-risk stretch reduced from 29 to 16 minutes
• Final Rajasthan overlay completed at ₹51.6 crore, 96 per cent within acceptance before rectification
• Pre-monsoon culvert survey extended to every concession

Decisions in context

As chief operating officer I am accountable for how six roads perform, not for how the trust is financed. That boundary is useful. My recommendations reach the investment manager with their costs stated, and its board decides what unitholders bear. Most of my time goes to three things: incident and safety performance, the maintenance programme, and plaza operations. I read the overnight incident report each morning and review response times monthly by corridor. I approve the annual maintenance plan after a joint review with corridor heads and the safety head. Since 2022 I have also been a nominee director of two of the trust's road companies, which has taught me how different it is to hold a director's duties rather than an executive's remit. My current priority is the March 2027 transfer of our Rajasthan concession and the people who work on it.

Reason for the move

Current role; seeking a first independent directorship alongside it, with employer consent.

Mandate

Bring three concessions, then six, onto common operating procedures before and after their transfer into the trust.

Outcomes

• Common incident log and response-time reporting introduced on all six concessions
• Plaza lanes, exemptions and dispute handling reorganised for mandatory FASTag in February 2021
• Pavement condition surveys standardised after each monsoon

Decisions in context

I joined to run three concessions acquired or built by the sponsor at different times, each with its own habits. By 2019 there were six, and the formation of the trust brought a new reader of everything we reported. I spent the first two years writing common procedures for incident logging, patrol coverage, plaza cash and maintenance planning, then testing them on night visits. The trust's investment manager wanted operating cash to be predictable, and I learnt to present maintenance as a planned obligation rather than an unwelcome surprise. The hardest period was the move to mandatory electronic tolling. Queues formed at plazas where tags failed to read, and staff faced angry drivers paying higher fees without a valid tag. We redesigned lane allocation, trained supervisors on dispute handling and reported daily exceptions to the managing director for two months.

Reason for the move

Appointed chief operating officer when the previous incumbent retired.

Mandate

Take operating responsibility for the whole concession, from patrol and plazas to pavement and inspections.

Outcomes

• Night patrol coverage reorganised to cut median response time from 34 to 22 minutes
• Five-year periodic maintenance plan prepared and accepted by the concession's engineer
• Repeat pothole locations reduced by a drainage programme on 17 kilometres

Decisions in context

This was my first role with responsibility for everything a road user experiences. The concession company owned one corridor and expected one manager to answer for it. I learnt to read the monthly inspection reports of the concession's engineer as an early warning rather than a judgement, and to reply with dated actions. I matched traffic counts against toll records to understand where vehicles avoided the plazas and why. I also discovered how thin incident coverage can be at night. We moved patrol vehicles to where crashes actually happened rather than where the base was convenient, which shortened response times without adding vehicles. The drainage work on seventeen kilometres came from my maintenance years: the same potholes kept returning until we fixed the water beneath them. I left because I wanted to apply those lessons across more than one road.

Reason for the move

Moved to a multi-concession operator to run several corridors.

Mandate

Run contracted plazas accurately and safely, and keep each fee-collection contract in good standing.

Outcomes

• Cash discrepancies reduced through shift-level reconciliation on all nine plazas
• Vehicle misclassification audits introduced using lane camera records
• Night-shift safety arrangements for lane staff agreed with local police

Decisions in context

Toll operations were new to me, and I started by working shifts in a booth. Plazas then handled mostly cash, and every shift ended with a count that had to match the tickets issued. I learnt how revenue leaked: vehicles classified in a cheaper category, exemptions claimed without entitlement, local passes lent to others. I also learnt how exposed lane staff were at night, when disputes could turn violent. We introduced camera-based classification audits and shift-level reconciliation, and I negotiated police support arrangements for the busiest plazas. Each contract required us to remit agreed sums regardless of what the plaza actually collected, so accuracy decided whether we kept the business. This period gave me a lasting respect for front-line toll staff and a practical understanding of the user's experience, which engineers in road companies often lack.

Reason for the move

Joined a concession company to manage a whole road rather than its plazas alone.

Mandate

Survey pavement condition and supervise contractors' maintenance work for state-government clients.

Outcomes

• Pavement condition surveys completed on about 600 kilometres of state highway
• Recurring repair locations recorded and linked to drainage defects
• Contractor measurement disputes resolved with photographic records

Decisions in context

I spent four years measuring roads and the work done on them. Surveys showed me how pavements fail, and supervising contractors showed me how maintenance money is spent. The two did not always connect. Clients often paid for the same repair in consecutive years because the underlying problem was water, not surface. I started keeping a register of repeat locations and showing it to the team leader before each annual programme, which led two clients to fund drainage work instead of more patching. I also learnt the practical side of contract supervision: measurements contractors could dispute, records that settled arguments, and the difference between a defect and a disagreement. I left because I had seen maintenance only from the inspector's side, and I wanted to understand how a highway's operator meets its users and earns its revenue.

Reason for the move

Moved into toll operations to understand how highways are run and paid for.

Mandate

Supervise earthwork, drainage and pavement layers on state highway widening works.

Outcomes

• Supervised about 14 kilometres of embankment and pavement construction
• Revised culvert positions on two sections after catchment walks
• Daily measurement records accepted by the client's engineer without dispute

Decisions in context

My first job taught me that construction drawings describe an intention, not the ground. I supervised earthwork, culverts and pavement layers on state highway widening in Haryana and Punjab, starting with long days of measurement and material checks. The August 1999 flooding against one of our embankments showed me how quickly local conditions change after a survey. After that I walked the catchment around every culvert in my section before it was built, and twice persuaded the project manager to ask the client's engineer for revised positions. I also learnt to work with gangs whose experience exceeded mine and whose safety depended on how I organised traffic beside the works. I moved on because I had seen roads built but not maintained, and the questions that interested me most were about what happened to them afterwards.

Reason for the move

Joined a consultancy to learn maintenance and pavement condition assessment.