Today I had to drive around 30 kilometers to attend a wedding reception of one of my friends. In spite of my schedule I wanted to go because I had given him my word that I would be there for the reception. I was planning to go by bus as it would not have been any less convenient to go by bus than by car. However by the time I got out of my office it was already too late to go by bus. So I decided to go by car half-heartedly. Additionally I had to come back early to pick up and drop off a cousin of mine from her work to her home.

I had to travel by the MC Road or formally called State Highway 1 (SH1). I used to travel by this route very often while doing my engineering but I have not traveled by bus/car through this route in the recent past. The main reason was that the road was completely in a state of disrepair you would not expect on a SH1. There was also a renovation project that was dropped half way thanks to some corrupt PWD officials.

I was however totally surprised by the state of the road as I traveled today along this route. Had I been transported instantaneously to a US Highway I would barely have noticed the difference. The road surface was simply superb and the banking and the curves were well designed.

There are still some pending work like painting of lanes, construction of footpaths etc but overall I was very impressed. The project is still done by the same Malaysian company - Pati Bell - who was shooed away by the corrupt officials from their first project on the same highway.

What the status of this road demonstrates is that, it is possible for this country to achieve any level of development provided relevant officials set their heart to it. I enjoyed the ride both to and from the reception but for the distance I had to drive within the city. Though I had started the journey disgruntled about taking the car I came back totally refreshed and satisfied after the wonderful drive.