Japan defends it, Vietnam stretches it, India ignores it. In Asia, time really is relative
- If you’ve ever wondered about the relativity of time just take a ride on India’s New Jalpaiguri Express
- Chances are you’ll find an extra 20 hours to while away – but it will feel like forever
One of the best examples of Indian Standard Time, or IST, can be seen in the country’s expansive railway system. Made up of more than 7,349 stations, and servicing more than 8 billion passengers a year, India’s rail system is among the busiest in world. Unfortunately, it’s also among the most inefficient and is notorious for hours-long delays and slow customer service. In 2018, in the World Economic Forum’s ranking on train efficiency, it was a full 24 places behind Japan, which took second behind Switzerland.
But even that ranking looks flattering when you consider the New Jalpaiguri Express (NJP), which is infamous for tardiness. The train, which departs from New Delhi and takes travellers as far as New Jalpaiguri, took the dubious honour of being India’s most delayed train in the last half of 2018. According to the local press, it is on average 20 hours behind schedule.
Social media is full of less than glowing reviews of the NJP. “It’s actually three hours delayed now. Halting at every station. Unable to understand why you call it an express when it’s running like a local train,” said Twitter user Arnab Roy in a complaint aimed at Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.
India’s culture of tardiness extends beyond its late-running trains, and has a very real economic impact, according to Monica Verma, a former journalist and researcher specialising in the South Asian political economy at South Asian University in New Delhi. “The problem of tardiness definitely affects Indian growth where the bureaucratic delays and red tape-ism affect project delivery and execution,” she said.
