Transport Systems in India | General Test Preparation for CUET - CUET Commerce PDF Download

Definition

Transport or transportation is the movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land(rail & road), water, cable, pipeline and space.

Railways

• Railways were introduced to India in 1853 when a line was constructed from Bombay to Thane covering a distance of 34 km.
• The total length of the Indian Railways network is 68,043 km (42,280 mi).
• The gauge-wise route and track lengths of the systems as of 31st March, 2007 are as under:-
• The network is divided into 18 zones. Divisions are basic operating units. The 18 zones are their respective headquarters are given below.

Road

• With a total length of about 42.3 lakh km, India has one of the largest road networks in the world. About 85% of passenger and 70% of freight traffic is carried by roads.
• Roads have been classified as National Highways (NH), State Highways (SH), Major District Roads, and Rural Roads.
• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Surface Transport was operationalized in 1995. 
• The NHAI is responsible for the development, maintenance, and operation of National Highways.
• The National Highways constitute only 2.67 percent of the total road length but carry about 40 percent of the road traffic.
• State Highways are constructed and maintained by the state governments.

Waterways

• Water transport can be divided into two major categories − inland waterways and oceanic waterways.
• Inland Waterways Authority was set up in 1986 for the development, maintenance, and regulation of national waterways in the country.
• Ocean transport is the most important water transport, because it has certain advantages over land carriage. 
• The sea offers a ready-made carriageway for ships which, unlike the roadway or railway, requires no maintenance.
• Water surfaces are two-dimensional and, although sea-going vessels frequently keep to shipping lanes, ships can travel, within a limited number of constraints, in any direction.

Important National Waterways of India

Air Ports

• Air transport in India marked its beginning in 1911 with the commencement of airmail over a little distance of 10 km between Allahabad and Naini.
• Pawan Hans is the helicopter service operating in hilly areas and is widely used by tourists in north-eastern regions.
• The coastline of India is dotted with 12 Major Ports and about 200 Non-major Ports. 
• The Major Ports are under the purview of the central while the Non-major Ports come under the jurisdiction of the respective State Governments.

Sea Ports

• At present, India has 12 major ports and 185 minor or intermediate ports.
• There are 13 major seaports in India, there are more than 180 minor ports that handle a huge volume of traffic.
• The capacity of Indian ports increased from 20 million tons of cargo handling in 1951 to 1,617 million tons in 2023.
• Mumbai has a natural harbor and it is the biggest seaport of the country.

Pipelines

• The oil and gas industry in India imports 82% of its oil needs and aims to bring that down to 67% by 2022 by replacing it with local exploration, renewable energy and indigenous ethanol fuel (Jan 2018).
• The length of pipelines for crude oil is 20,000 km (12,427 mi).
• The length of the Petroleum products pipeline is approximately 16,800 km.

Space Transportation System

• The Space Transportation System (STS), also known internally to NASA as the Integrated Program Plan (IPP), was a proposed system of reusable manned space vehicles envisioned in 1969 to support extended operations beyond the Apollo program.
• The purpose of the system was twofold: to reduce the cost of spaceflight by replacing the current method of launching capsules on expendable rockets with reusable spacecraft; and to support ambitious follow-on programs including permanent orbiting space stations around the Earth and Moon, and human landing mission to Mars.