INDIAN TRAFFIC

About Indian Road Conditions

Facts:

• traffic in India moves on the left
• speed-limit: 90 km/h
• road tolls on many highways
• road conditions reach from modern highway to farm track
• markers are rarely and much more rarely in English

 

What You Should Know:

It is difficult to give a concise account of conditions in a country as vast as India and varying so widely in its physical road conditions. Some people will call it chaotic – in any case, Indian road scenario is a mixture of sound, spectacle and experience.

You will hardly find Indian roads free of traffic. Congestion on roads is a normal phenomenon. In the big cities, you may also encounter frequent traffic jams. Nor can most road users guess what type of vehicle they will face – India has a variety of "modes of transport" including overloaded trucks and buses, scooters, pedestrians, cows, bullocks and camel carts, horse or elephant riders as well as cycle-rickshaws and free-roaming livestock.
As far as the Indian road conditions go, apart from the big cities, the roads are sometimes poorly maintained. These roads are notorious for deep pot-holes or manholes. It is very difficult for the drivers to identify them at night which may results in fatal accidents. For this reason, I only drive in daytime (except for transfers within a city or from/to the airport).