New highway corridors are being implanted at various scales – local, metropolitan, regional, and interregional – often bypassing existing routes and opening new speculative frontiers for urban land markets. This article periodises the different stages of highway construction in India during the neo-liberal era.
It finds how this state-led infrastructure expansion fosters new territorial imaginaries of nationhood, citizenship, and environmentalism. As infrastructure-led urbanisation continues to remain a dominant trend, this article calls for increased attention to the socio-spatial differentiation, struggles and environmental impacts arising from this highway-driven fossil urbanism.
In: Economic & Political weekly, Vol. 59, Issue No. 52, 28 Dec, 2024.
