TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION

Transport

India has an elaborate transport network comprising of railways, roadways and airways. Means of transport are called the lifelines of an economy. A developed transport network is essential for development of all sectors including agriculture, industry and trade.

 

1. Railways

• Indian railway system is the largest in Asia and the fourth largest in the world. It is the biggest departmental public undertaking in the country.
• The firsttrain ran in India between Bombay and Thane, a stretch of 34 Kms on April 16, 1853. The Indian Railways celebrated its 150th anniversary on April 16, 2003. To commemorate the occasion, on 16th jan, Shatabadi intercity express trains were announced to be inducted.
• The second train ran between Howrah and Hooghly in 1854.
• The headquarters of Indian Railway is in New Delhi.
• The first electric train in India was ‘Deccan Queen’. It was introduced in 1929 between Bombay and Poona.
• Indian Railways has the second biggest electrified system in the world after Russia.
• The fastest train in India is the Shatabadi Express whose maximum speed is 140 km/hr.
• The total route covered is approx. 63,000 km.
• The total number of railway stations in India is 7,100.
• The longest railway platform in India is at Kharagpur (W.B).
• Mumbai is the destination where maximum number of trains in India head for.
• The longest train route is of ‘Vivek Express’ from Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari. It covers a distance of 4,273 kms. (8^th longest in the world). It was started to commemorate the 150^th birth anniversery of Swami Vivekananda.
• The first Metro Rail was introduced in Kolkata (W.Bengal) on Oct 24, 1984. The two stations connected were Dumdum and Belgachhia.

 

The Indian Railways operate in three different gauges:

1. BroadGauge(Distancebetweenrailsis 1.67 m)
2. Meter Gauge (Distance between rails is 1.00 m)
3. Narrow Gauge (Distance between rails is 0.762 or 0.610m)

1. Road Transport

• India’s road network is one of the largest in the World. The total length of roads is more than 33 Takh km.

For the purpose of maintenance and construction, roads are classified into National Highways, State Highways, District Highways Village Roads, Border Roads, etc.

• National highways are maintained by the Central Government, State highways by the respective State government while District highways by the respective District Board. Border roads and International highways are also the responsibility of Central Government.
• The present length of the National Highways in India is approx, 66,000 km. They constitute only 2% of the total road length and carries nearly 40% of the road traffic.

Some of the important National Highways:

NH 1 : New Delhi-Ambala-Jalandhar-Amritsar.

NH 2 : Delhi-Mathura-Agra-Kanpur-Allahabad – Varanasi – Kolkata.

NH 3 : Agra-Gwalior-Nasik-Mumbai

NH 4 : Thane and Chennai via Pune and Belgaun.

NH 5 : Kolkata – Chennai

NH 6 : Kolkata – Dhule

NH 7 : Varanasi – Kanyakumari

NH 8 : Delhi- Mumbai (via Jaipur, Baroda and  Ahmedabad)

NH 9 : Mumbai – Vijaywada

NH 10 : Delhi – Fazilka.

NH 11 : Agra – Bikaner

NH 12 : Jabalpur-Jaipur

NH 24 : Delhi – Lucknow

NH 27 : Allahabad – Varanasi

NH 28 : Barauiii – Lucknow

NH 29 : Gorakhpur-Varanasi

NH 44 : J &K-Kanyakumari (Longest)

NH 56 : Lucknow – Varanasi

 

1. Water Transport

• Most efficient, least costly and environment friendly means of transportation.
• The total length of navigable waterways in Indian comprising rivers, canals, backwaters, etc, is 14,500 km out of which 3700 km is navigable by mechanised boats.
• The government has recognised the following National Waterways of India:
• NW 1 Allahabad to Haldia                                             1,629 km
• NW 2 Sadai to Dhubari (on Brahmaputra river)              819 km
• NW 3 Kollam to Kottapuram                                         186 km
• NW 4 Kakinada to Marakkanam                                     1,100 km

(Proposed) (along Godavari and Krishna river)

PORT IN INDIA

The Waterways Authority in India divide Indian ports into three categories: major, minor and intermediate.

India has about 190 ports in all, with 12 major and the rest intermediate and minor.

The 12 major ports are:

Port	State
Kolkata (including Haldia	West Bengal
Paradip	Orissa
Vishakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh
Ennore	Tamil Nadu
Chennai	Tamil Nadu
Tuticorin	Tamil Nadu
Cochin	Kerala
New Mangalore	Karnataka
Mormugao	Goa
Jawaharlal Nehru	Maharashtra
Mumbai	Maharashtra
Kandla	Gujarat

 

All these ports are administered by the respective Port Trusts, except the newly constructed Ennore port which is under the Ennore Port Ltd. Company.

SALIENT FEATURES:

KOLKATA PORT (including Haldia)

Kolkata is a riverine port, located about 128 km from the Bay of Bengal on the banks of river Hoegly. Haldia was developed because excessive silting prevented the entry of large marine vessels in Kolkata.

PARADIP PORT

Located on the Orissa coast along the Bay of Bangal. India exports raw iron to Japan from here.

VISHAKHAPATNAM PORT

The deepest port, located in Andhra Pradesh. It serves the Bhilai and Rourkela steel plants. This is the largest Shipbuilding yard of India.

CHENNAI PORT

Oldest artificial harbour. This port ranks only second after Mumbai in terms of the traffic handling capacity.

ENNORE PORT

Declared a major port in 2001. It is the first port with corporate participation. It has been provided with all the modern facilities for handling the thermal coal required for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board power station.

TUT1CORIN PORT

It came into existence during the reign of Pandya kings. It has an artificial deep sea harbour.

COCHIN PORT

A fine.natural harbour located-on-Kerala coasts; Handles the export of tea, coffee and spices and import of petroleum and fertilisers.

NEW MANGALORE PORT

The ‘Gateway of Karnataka’.Handles the export of iron-ore of Kudremukh.

MARMUGAO PORT

It has a naval base. India’s leading iron-ore port.

MUMBAI PORT

A natural port. It is India’s busiest port. A new port, Nhava sheva, is being developed near Mumbai port.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU PORT

Occupies the 5th position in the world’s faster growing ports.

     KANDLA PORT

Called the ‘offspring of partition’ as it was developed after the partition as a substitute of Karanchi port. It is a tidal and a free trade zone located in the Rami of Kutch.

 

2. Air Transport

• R.D Tata was the first person to make a solo flight from Mumbai to Karachi in 1931.
• In 1935. the ‘Tata Air Lines’ started its operation between Mumbai and Tiruvanarithapuram and in 1937 between Mumbai and Delhi.
• In 1953. all the private Airline companies were nationalised and Indian Airlines and Air India came into existence,both recently merged into ‘National Aviation Company Ltd’.
• Air India administers international flights while Indian Air lines.to domestic circuit.
• The two Airlines ‘Indian Airlinesand ‘Air India’ merged into National Aviation company Ltd. in 1997.
• Vayudoot limited started in 1981 as a private air carrier and later on it merged with Indian Airlines.
• Pawan Hans limited operate helicopter support services to oil sector, hill stations and remote areas.
• A number of private airlines also operates in India. They are Jet Airways, Sahara, etc.
• The Civil Aviation Centre in Fursatgarh near Allahabad provided, among other things, ground training to the pilots.

AIRPORTS IN India

There are 12 international airports in India.

1. Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad.
2. Calicut International Airport, Calicut.
3. Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai
4. Chennai International Airport, Chennai.
5. HAL Airport Bangalore.
6. Goa Airport in Vasco-da-Gama city Goa.
7. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordolio International Airport, Guwahati
8. Indira Gandhi International Airport Delhi.
9. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata.
10. Rja Sansi International Airport, Amritsar.
11. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad.
12. Thiruvananathapuram International Airport, Thiruvananathapuram.

• The Indira Gandhi International Airport and the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport handle more than half of the air traffic in South Asia.
• In total, there are more than 334 (2002 est.) civilian airports in India-238 with paved runways and 108 with unpaved runways.

5.Communications

Communications are as important as or rather more important than means of transport in the modern world.

Postal System

The postal system was thrown open to the public in 1837. The first Indian postal stamp, which was valid only in the Sind province, was issued in 1852 in Karachi. The Indian Post Office was recognized as an institution in 1854 when 700 post offices were already in existence.

Mail Delivery: Collecting and delivering mail is the primary function of the Department of Posts. The service was introduced in 1975 and it today covers the entire country. The service functions on the basis of the system of PIN (Postal Index Number) Code introduced in 1972. These codes are six-digit numbers identifying the departmental post office to which the letter is to reach for final delivery. The entire country has been divided into the PIN code zones/ regions. Speed Post Service has also been introduced to expedite deliveries of postal articles in the major cities.

Telecommunications

Telegraph and telephone are the basic means of telecommunication. The first telegraph line of India was set up between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour and it was opened to traffic in 1851. Telephone service was also started in Kolkata in 1881-82 and the first automatic telephone exchange was commissioned at Shimla in 1913-­14. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is the most important government organization in this field. Another public sector undertaking, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) formed in 1986, provides telecom services excluding public telegraph service) in metropolitan limits of Mumbai and Delhi.

Telegraph Services

A “telegraph” is a device for transmitting and receiving messages over long distances without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Telegraph services are provided by the telegraph offices. The total number of telegraph offices in the country is well over 35000 and most of these are attached to post offices. The telegraph offices provide telegram and telex services.

• The national telex service was opened in 1963 and the first Devnagari telex was inaugurated in 1969.
• The service, which is thelast large-scale telegram serviceoperating in the world, was ceased on 15 July, 2013.