Transport in India- 1 | General Awareness & Knowledge - Bank Exams PDF Download

Transport in India

Transport in India

• Means of transport
  • Land: Road, Railways
  • Water
  • Air

Road Transport in India

• India’s road network is one of the largest in the world.
• The total length of roads is more than 33.1 lakh km.
• About 85%of passenger & 70% of freight traffic are carried by roads every year
• For the purpose of maintenance and construction, roads are classified into National Highways, State Highways, District Highways, Village Roads, Border Roads, etc.
• Indian Road Network

National Highways

• The roads which are maintained by the Central Government
• Meant for inter-state transport
• Their length has increased from 19700km to 65769 km in 2005
• They constitute only 2% of the road length but carry 40% of the road traffic
• NHAI established din 1995 under ministry of “Surface Transport” is entrusted with the responsibility of development, maintenance and operation of National highways
• NHAI has taken up project in the country called National Highway development Project in several phases

Golden Quadrilateral

• Phase I: The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ; 5,846 km) connecting the four major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
• This project connecting four metro cities, would be 5,846 km (3,633 mi).
• funded largely by the government’s special petroleum product tax revenues and government borrowing.
• In January 2012, India announced the four lane GQ highway network as complete.

North-South and East-West corridors

• Phase II: North-South and East-West corridors comprising national highways connecting four extreme points of the country.
• The North-South and East-West Corridor (NS-EW; 7,300 km) connecting Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, including spur from Salem to Kanyakumari (Via Coimbatore and Kochi) and Silchar in the east to Porbandar in the west.
• Phase II: North-South and East-West corridors comprising national highways connecting four extreme points of the country.
• The North-South and East-West Corridor (NS-EW; 7,300 km) connecting Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, including spur from Salem to Kanyakumari (Via Coimbatore and Kochi) and Silchar in the east to Porbandar in the west.Leanth of the network is 7,300 km (4,500 mi).
• As of April 2012, 84.26% of the project had been completed and 15.7% of the project work is currently at progress.It also includes Port connectivity and other projects — 1,157 km (719 mi).

National Highways Development Project 

Expressways

Important National Highways are:

• NH 1: New Delhi – Ambala – Jalandhar – Amritsar.
• NH 2: Delhi – Mathura – Agara – 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: Barauni – Lucknow
• NH 29: Gorakhpur – Varanasi
• NH 56: Lucknow – Varanasi
• NH – 7 is the longest highway of India.

Road density

• It is length of road per 100 sq. km of land area
• Definition: Road density is the ratio of the length of the country's total road network to the country's land area.
• The road network includes all roads in the country: motorways, highways, main or national roads, secondary or regional roads, and other urban and rural roads.
• The distribution of road is not uniform in India
• It varies from only 10.48 km in J&K to 387.24 km in Kerala with a national average of 75.42km
• It is low in Himalayan region, Northeast region and Rajasthan

Railways in India

• 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 first train ran in India between Bombay and Thane, a stretch of 34 km. on April 16 1853.
• The Indian Railways celebrated its 150th anniversary on April 16, 2003.
• To commemorate the occasion, 16 January – Shatabadi inter – city express trains were announced to be inducted.
• 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 ‘Himsagar Express’ from Jammu Tavi to Kanyakumari. It covers a distance of 3,726 km and passes through ten states.
• The first Metro Rail was introduced in Kolkata (W.Bengal) on October 24, 1984. The two stations connected were Dumdum and Belgachhia.
• The Indian Railways operate in three different gauges :
  • Broad Gauge Railway (Distance between rails is 1.67 m).
  • Metre Gauge Railways (Distance between rails is 1.00 m).
  • Narrow Gauge Railways India (Distance between rails is 0.762 or 0.610 m).
• The broad gauge accounts for nearly 74% route followed by metre gauge (21%) and the remaining by narrow gauge.

• Northern Railway (NR) is the largest railway zone having length of 10,995 km.
• North – East Frontier (NEF) is the smallest railway zone having just 3,860 km route length.
• Konkan Railways India : It is a project to shorten the distance between Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. The total route length is 786 km between Roha (Maharashtra) and Mangalore (Karnataka).

Vivek Express

• Vivek Express are four pairs of Express Trains on the Indian Railways network.
• These trains were announced in the Railway Budget of 2011-12 by the then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.
• These trains were started to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand, to be held in 2013.
• One of the Vivek Express trains, the one from Dibrugarh Town to Kanyakumari; is the longest route (4286 km) on the Indian Railways network, in terms of distance and time, and is the 8th longest in the world.

Railway Manufacturing Units

• Chittaranjan Locomotive Works : Located in Chittaranjan (W.B) and manufactures electric engines.
• Diesel Locomotive Works : Located in Varanasi (U.P) and manufactures diesel engines.
• Integral Coach Factory in India : Located in Perambur (TN) and manufactures rail coaches.
• Wheel and Axle Plant : Located at Yalahanka (Bangalore, Karnataka) and manufactures wheels and axles.
• Diesel Component Works : Located at Patiala (Punjab) and manufactures components of diesel engines.
• Rail Coach Factory in India : Located at Kapurthala (Punjab) and manufactures rail coaches.