KOCHI, 13 October 2007 — Fed up with the woes of traffic, K.M. Nooruddin Mather, a banker, decided on an alternative mode of transport that doesn’t run on gas but grass.

“It’s not that I fancy taking a ride on horseback downtown like a cowboy,” said Mather. “It’s a poor reflection on the sorry state of affairs in this country.”

Mather was referring to the sorry state of the southern Indian state’s road infrastructure. To deal with the potholes and traffic jams, Mather has decided to commute to work every day in this port city on a horse.

“I decided to take an 18th-century mode of transport even though it is a little embarrassing to face the staring eyes everywhere,” says Mather, who is also the head of the Kerala Tennis Club.

Mather said he was fed up with pouring money into his luxury four-wheeler, which needed constant repair due to damages caused by bad road conditions. He estimates that he’s spent 800,000 rupees (about $20,000) over the years. Finally he dropped 40,000 rupees (about $1,000) for a horse whose upkeep costs are considerably less. To call the damaged spots on Kerala’s roads “potholes” is an understatement; a hole on the Kaloor-Kadavanthara road leading to the Cochin airport is easily the size of a swimming pool.

“It’s a nightmare,” he said of the condition of the roads. “Everyday I would reach my office drenched in muddy water splashed by speeding buses and trucks.”

Now that Mather has replaced four wheels with four hooves the executive can steer nimbly over (or around) potholes and uneven pavement, as well as weave through traffic jams.

“No more breakdowns, no road rage,” he said. “I can go at my pace enjoying a peaceful ride.”

Mather said that using a horse to commute to work is also his form of protest.

“It’s a pity vehicle owners are subjected to such treatment even after paying heavy taxes,” he said. “Fatal accidents are on the rise. Resentment is brewing all over, but the state is unmindful.”

The ambitious World Bank-funded Kerala State Transport Project to upgrade Kerala’s roads to international standards has hit a roadblock; construction majors like Punj Lloyd stopped work saying the government has failed to meet its contractual obligations. Adding to the slowdown is the state government’s opposition to the privatization of roadwork on the build-operate-transfer scheme.

The state collects more than Rs.10 billion every year in road taxes, including tolls, according to it own statistics, but most of the money is used to pay for public pensions rather than reinvested into roads upgrades and maintenance. To add to the problems, the Public Works Department has remained without a director for the past month after a recent controversy revolving around misconduct and corruption allegations.

The state government has made a promise to complete all road works by Oct. 15. With the deadline looming, it would be a miracle for this promise to be fulfilled, despite visible progress in some places.

The opposition Congress Party-led United Democratic Front has been raising the issue on the floors of the state’s legislative assembly and elsewhere to no avail. Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said the government was expecting over Rs.8 billion this year by way of road tax on motor vehicles and was planning to spend Rs.20 billion in the near future for road upgrade and maintenance.

For Mather and others, this investment — if it results in visible improvements — would not come a moment too soon at this point.