Abstract 

Countries aim to develop and maintain efficient transport  infrastructure to connect regions and make settlements  accessible. Obviously, an area that is better connected and  more accessible has higher potential to reach social and  economic activities, and is more likely to participate in global  value chains. This study measures road transport  performance in India using a transport assessment framework  recently implemented in European Union countries. It is the  first time the framework is applied to an Asian country at a fine  spatial granularity. The study finds that performance varies  considerably across major Indian states. Mumbai and Delhi  metropolitan areas are on par with European cities, but the  majority of the subdistricts are far behind. It also shows that  urban areas of some states underperform rural areas of other  states, which differs from the pattern in Europe and contradicts conventional wisdom. Finally, the study also applies the  framework to simulate the impact of the Gujarat Rural Roads  project and the potential effects of connecting the planned  Dholera (Gujarat) airport through different road investment  projects.

Acknowledgements  

The authors are with the Economics Department at the  Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The study is  part of the department’s Spatial Economic Analysis Initiative. 

It does not represent the view of AIIB or that of its Board  of Directors. The research greatly benefited from guidance  and encouragement by Erik Berglof and Jangping Thia. 

The authors are also grateful to Lewis Dijkstra and  Hugo Poelman for their useful comments and suggestions.