Indian traveller questions India’s urban design after experiencing Bangkok’s people-first elevated walkway

A video by an Indian traveller in Bangkok has stirred a lively debate on social media about the contrasting approaches to urban planning in India and abroad. The vlogger, Mohit, shared the clip on Instagram, where he is seen strolling along an elevated walkway that weaves through the Thai capital like a well-behaved ribbon of concrete.

‘This is true people-first planning’

Walking above the traffic with the metro soaring even higher above him, Mohit explained in Hindi what he was experiencing. The translation reads: “Right now, I’m walking on a structure that is actually above the ground. The road is below, the metro runs even higher above it, and between them they’ve created this elevated walkway. It connects to multiple buildings, continues further ahead, and feels seamlessly integrated. It’s clear to me that everything here has been built according to what people actually need. This is true people-first planning, where development follows the needs of citizens.”

He did not stop there. He added: “Back home, we have bureaucrat-first planning, where whatever an officer or politician imagines from the top is simply drawn on paper and handed to the public with the expectation that they must somehow use it. Whether it suits people or not hardly matters. This is Bangkok. If they can progress this far, why can’t we? Because our officials do not prioritise it and our politicians do not push for it. Here the approach is on an entirely different level. In India, we do not even have proper footpaths to walk on, and only much later do we think of building walkways like these.”

Take a look here at the clip:

Going viral across platforms

Mohit’s clip crossed platforms quickly. On X, one user shared it with a sharp caption: “More and more Indians travelling abroad and realising they are being made fools of in India.”

Check out the post here:

The video has now garnered more than two lakh views, and the conversation around it appears to grow with each refresh.

Several comments swirled beneath the post, creating a crowded echo of frustration and aspiration. One user wrote that the video “felt like a mirror held up to India’s planners.” Another said it “shows how far behind we are despite having the talent.” A third remarked that “officials simply do not care unless it suits them politically,” while another said the walkway “looked like the future we keep promising but never build.”