Express Business Traveller - issue dtd. August 2004

Driven To Despair

Over the last few years most of our topics have touched upon business lounges, frequent flyer programmes, first class and business class facilities and most other facets of air travel that would influence business travel. While we have taken into account that most business travellers would use air travel from destination to destination, we have very rarely touched upon what a traveller faces in terms of travel travails after getting to his desired destination. How does he now negotiate his choice of business city or destination in the best possible way? The cover story in this issue of feBusiness Traveller attempts to unravel the mysteries of intra-city travel and present what we think is the best possible way to negotiate travel, maximising time and minimising stress as one goes through the five major Indian metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. While we hope that these travel pointers would help in at least some way in reducing the travel discomfort that is associated with not only Indian metros but any of the big cities worldwide, it is only natural that you will still have to live and learn as you go through city by city. Being a Mumbaikar myself I can safely tell you while this city boasts of the best public transport in the country, train travel and road travel by bus or car are all equally nightmarish and the only saviour will be the development of a water transport network. In the streets of Delhi, even with the traffic congestion, any business traveller would be compelled to use a car to get around simply because of the lack of any other means of organised transport. Maybe the Metro Railway will improve things. My very first visit to London made me swear that I would never take the road again and since then it's always been the Tube or the Metro Railway, and the same stands for Paris, Madrid or Bangkok (the only difference being the Sky Train). I hope I am making my point that in most cases you would be driven to despair in commercial hubs while the leisure traveller has tremendous options at his disposal but I would strongly recommend the road. There is no better way to take in the sights and feel of any country or destination than by doing a self-drive through the picturesque countryside. Anyone who has done the drive through the wine country in France or Switzerland would know exactly what I am talking about…but let's not discount the pleasure of driving through our very own countryside as I recently discovered when I took off on a dream drive of over 1,600 kms through Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa in a Mercedes Benz. Read all about it in our Dream Drive Section and share my ecstasy…..

Sheldon Santwan
EDITOR, feBusiness Traveller
Sheldon can be reached at
editor@businesstravellerindia.com