Transport And Communication - Free MCQ Practice Test with solutions, UPSC

Horses and mules were the chief beasts of burden.

Optical fibres help transmit data at a very high speed.

USA has a very long network of roads.

Option D - Human portage is correct.

• In thickly forested and rugged mountainous areas, building and maintaining permanent infrastructure such as roads is difficult and often impossible in many stretches.
• Water transport is generally unavailable because there are no navigable rivers or canals in such terrain.
• Pipelines are suitable only for continuous transfer of liquids or gases and require construction and maintenance that are impractical in inaccessible high-relief or dense-forest zones.
• Human portage, often combined with the use of pack animals, allows goods and supplies to be carried along narrow footpaths and steep slopes where vehicles cannot reach; it is flexible and requires minimal built infrastructure.
• Therefore, Human portage is the most suitable mode of transport in these areas.

The best mode of transporting fuel oil and water in a thickly forested area and on mountains is pipelines. It is so, because humans cannot move on rough terrains where metalled roads cannot be constructed.

HBJ pipeline has been constructed by Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) to transport gas. It is 1,750 km long and connects Hazira in Maharashtra to Bijapur in M.P. and Jagdishpur in U.P.

USA accounts for 33% of the world's total motorable road length.

It is the longest national highway in India with a length of 3,745 kilometres running from Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the South. This highway connects 11 states and about 30 important cities with each other.

The longest double tracked and electrified transcontinental railway in the world is the Trans-Siberian railway.

In Europe, there are approximately 4,40,000 km of railways.