TOKYO -- This past April in Mumbai, a new 6.5-km arterial road crossing the center of the metropolis from east to west opened to traffic with a showy ceremony by the Maharashtra state government. The Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road was initially scheduled to open in 2004, but construction took about 10 years longer due to delays in land acquisition and sluggish bureaucracy within the state government. It was ridiculed as the "world's most delayed road project."
During that time, the cost of the project swelled from 1.15 billion rupees ($20.5 million) in the initial plan to 4.35 billion rupees due to rising land and materials prices. Critics also complained that the Indian National Congress, the ruling party in the state, intentionally shifted the opening ceremony to just ahead of the recent general election to take political advantage of the occasion.
