India, Oct. 25 -- Economic development is often measured by the opportunities an economy creates in jobs, markets, education and essential services, yet those opportunities count only when people can reach them. Transport is what makes those connections possible, and how well it works shapes a nation's productivity, inclusion and growth. It also decides whether a city is liveable, since its residents need to get to work and meet their everyday needs safely and reliably at a cost they can bear. As India develops, connecting people to opportunity will matter as much as creating it.

This matters most in cities, which bring jobs, firms and institutions together in the expectation that proximity will raise productivity, an expectation that ho...