About a kilometre from the Yamuna Expressway, on the two-lane connector near Jewar, a bunch of young men in high-visibility orange vests were busy collecting data from all vehicles coming and going. When our car stopped near a small, make-shift structure that housed their supervisor, we were welcomed with a broad smile. Prakash Kumar, the surveyor in charge of the programme, mistook us for state government representatives, arriving for their protection.
Kumar, in his early 30s, is a junior surveyor at a private agency the Uttar Pradesh government has hired to map the traffic flow on the road that connects the