View: Perpetually under-construction India must rethink building spree

A Japanese friend of mine once asked, ‘As an architect, aren’t you lucky to be living in a country with so much construction happening all the time?’ It barely needed reflecting that in fact it was he who was fortunate to be living in a country that was fully developed with finished buildings and highways, rather than one that was forever developing with all the aggravations of dust, construction debris and endless expenditure.

Just the way Trump uses the Mexican border wall to deflect from America’s problems, India finds cover in building religious and political symbols.

After the Statue of Unity and the Kasi Vishwanath development, construction of the Char Dham highways and the Shivaji statue is in progress.