The road-holiday arithmetic

When quizzed about the pace of road construction, which has been slow for the last few years, a senior official in the road transport and highways ministry offered a simple formula: divide the total road constructed by the number of days taken to do that minus holidays. "In our state (West Bengal), we leave out not just weekly offs and national holidays but Durga Puja holidays as well. So leave out the festival days also," he added helpfully.