India's missing railway and wartime survivability

British railway policy in India provides an example of selective infrastructure investment. Without a strong east-west route, supplies landed on India's safer western side could not simply move overland to the eastern front during the Second World War. Ships instead had to enter waters exposed to Japanese attack, increasing convoy and escort demands. The same transport weakness also impeded the movement of food toward areas of need. Strategic survivability is offered as the missing justification: infrastructure can be essential even when it lacks an immediate commercial return.