India Roads, Railways, Ports & Airways

by Devender

0 1019

Transportation in India consists of transport by land, water, and air. The grid of national highways connects nearly all the Indian cities and the roadways have preceded railways in India.

India Roads, Railways, Ports & Airways

1 Road Transport

The road transport of India consists of National highways, border highways, state highways, district highways, village roads, etc.

National Highways

The national highway authority of India (NHAI) has the responsibility for all the Highways in India. The national highways constitute 2 % of all roads & carry 40 % of total road traffic.

It is funded by cess on petrol & high-speed diesel from central road fund in Public accounts of India. UP has the highest length of National Highways.

NH7 - Varanasi – Cape – comrin (Kanyakumari)
NH6 - Surat – Kolkata
NH5 - Jharkhand – Chennai
NH2 - Delhi – Kolkata
NH8 - Delhi – Mumbai
NH4 - Mumbai – Chennai
NH3 - Agra – Mumbai

International Border Highways

These highways connect Indian borders with neighboring countries. Their responsibility lies with the Border road organization (BRO) and it is financed by the World Bank.

NH1 - INDO – PAK BORDER (Delhi, Haryana, Punjab)
NH22 - INDO – CHINA BORDER (Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh)
NH35 - INDO – BANGLADESH BORDER (WB)
NH39 - INDO – BHUTAN BORDER (Assam, Nagaland, Manipur)
NH28A - INDO – NEPAL BORDER (Bihar)

Famous Highway Projects

Golden Quadrilateral - 6 lane highway project connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai
North-South Corridor - Linking Srinagar – Kanyakumari
East-West Corridor - Linking Silchar (Assam) – Porbandar
Mumbai - Pune expressway - First expressway of India, built by the state government and not NHAI

State Highways

These highways connect state capitals with district centers & are constructed by state governments. The Union from Central road fund (CRF) provides grants & financial assistance to states if required.

Maharashtra has the largest length of state highways

District Highways

These connect District centers to other important places of districts like business centers, industrial centers, etc. The Zila Parishad constructs & maintains these roads.

Constitutes 1/3rd of total Indian roads
Maharashtra has the largest length of District highways

Village roads

These roads connect villages with neighboring towns & cities. Gram Panchayat has the responsibility of these roads.

In 2000, the central government launched Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) as a 100 % centrally sponsored scheme to provide the rural connectivity to unconnected rural areas with a population of 500 persons or more and 250 persons in the case of Hilly, Tribal & Desert areas.

Project Bharatmala

A road built along India's vast west-to east land border, approx. 5300km, from Gujarat to Mizoram. Linking it to a road network in coastal states, from Maharashtra to Bengal. This is a road network that will, as it were, garland the territory of India.

The Bharat Mala plan has a strong strategic component as it is India's attempt to answer to improve reach and connectivity in border areas, right across a large part of which lies China's impressive road infrastructure.

Rashtriya Rajmarg Zila Sanjoyokta Pariyojna - Roads will be developed to connect 100 district HQs across the country
Setubharatam - Government to build 210 rails over bridges in the next two years and about 400-500 bridges would be built as standalone projects

2 Indian Railways

The Indian consists of 3 gauges namely:

Broad Gauge - 1.675 m (70.72 %)
Meter Gauge - 1 m (92 %)
Narrow Gauge - .61 & .62 m (5.36 %)

Railways	Place
Central Railways	Mumbai Central
Northern Railways	Baroda House, New Delhi
Eastern Railways	Kolkata
Western Railways	Mumbai Church Gate
Southern Railways	Chennai Central
North Central Railway	Allahabad
East Central Railway	Hajipur
West Central Railway	Jabalpur
South Central Railway	Secunderabad

Metro Rails (Functioning)

Kolkata - First mass rapid transit system in India
Delhi
Bangalore - Wifi Enabled
Mumbai - Public-Private Partnership
Jaipur
Chennai
Gurgaon - India’s first fully privately financed metro and metro stations
Duronto Express - Fastest Train in India (known as Restless in Bengali)
Diamond Quadrilateral - High-speed rails project connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai

Dedicated Freight Corridor Projects

Amritsar-Kolkata	Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand & WB	Wholly by GOI, funded by WB
Mumbai Bengaluru	MH, Karnataka	Britain
Chennai-Bengaluru	Karnataka, TN, Andhra (Rayalaseema region)	JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)
Delhi Mumbai	UP, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra	JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)

3 Indian Ports

Mumbai - Natural harbor & biggest port of India (Gateway of India) handles approx. 1/5th of India's foreign trade
Nava Seva - Jawahar Lal Port (Highly Mechanized Port), Mumbai
Chennai - Oldest artificial harbor on east coast & 2nd largest port in terms of volume of traffic
Ennore - 1st corporate port (to release pressure on Chennai port)
Tuticorin (TN) - On the Eastern coast of India
Kandla - Tidal Port (To release pressure on Mumbai port, developed after the partition of India), Gujarat
Kochi - A natural harbor
Vishakhapatnam - Deepest artificial harbor on the east coast
Kolkata - Riverine Port (Handles goods coming from SE Asian countries Australia & New Zealand)
Haldia - Developed on river Hooghly to relieve pressure on Kolkata port
Paradip - Located on the Orissa coast
Mormugao - In Goa ( 5th in total traffic handled)
New Mangalore - On New Mangalore

The Indian ports have 95 % by volume & 70 % by value of India's international trade. In monsoon, all western ports except Mumbai, Cochin & Kandila are closed (12 Major & 1 Minor Port).

Maritime transport is to be administered by both the Central and the State governments. While the central government's shipping ministry administers the major ports, the minor and intermediate ports are administered by the relevant state gov. of coastal states. All major ports, except one Ennore Port, are government-administered. It is the first port in India which is a public company.

Major Inland Waterways by Inland waterways authority of India (IWAI)

Inland Waterway 1	Allahabad-Haldia stretch of Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system
Inland Waterway 2	The sadiya-Dhubri stretch of the Brahmaputra River (Assam)
Inland Waterway 3	The kottapuram-Kollam stretch of the West Coast Canal, Champakara Canal, and Udyogmandal Canal (Kerala)
Inland Waterway 4	Kakinada-Pondicherry along Godavari and Krishna River system
Inland Waterway 5	Talcher - Paradip (Odisha)
Inland Waterway 6	Lakhipur to Bhanga on the River Barak (Assam - Proposed)

The Central Government has jurisdiction over both the National Highways and the National Waterways and the States' Governments have no jurisdiction over the National Waterways.

Indian Waterways constitutes 1 % of total transport whereas length wise Inland Waterway 1 is the longest one and after that 4 > 2 > 5 > 3.

Inland waterways - 14500 km
Indian coastline - Approx. 7500 km

River Interlinking Program India

The National Water Development Agency has already identified 14 links under the Himalayan Component and 16 under the one for Peninsular Rivers with priority to the top 5 projects which are:

Ken-Betwa
Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal
Damanganga-Pinjal
Par-Tapi-Narmada
Godavari (Polavaram)-Krishna (Vijayawada)

The Himalayan Interlinking Rivers – 14

The Peninsular Interlinking Rivers – 16

Objectives of River Interlinking Project

To diminish water scarcity in western and peninsular India
To help in irrigation and storage as a large part of Indian agriculture is rainfall dependent
To mitigate droughts and floods
To reduce diversity between the water surplus and water-scarce parts of India
Creating employment
help in the socio-economic development of people

The opposition of River Interlinking Project

Huge capital requirement
The project may take 50 years to complete
Can cause seismic hazards in Himalaya
Execution is difficult as 21/30 links are dependent on other links
Displacement of tribal and poor
Interstate water disputes (political)
Loss of forest and biodiversity
International Conflicts with Nepal, Bangladesh

Project Sagarmala

Its aim is to improve India's maritime infrastructure by modernizing existing major and minor ports of India and setting up new ports. The prime objectives of it are:

to promote port-led direct and indirect development
to provide infrastructure to transport goods to and from ports quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively

The Sagarmala initiative will address challenges by focusing on three pillars of development which are:

Supporting and enabling Port-led Development through appropriate policy and institutional interventions and providing for an institutional framework for ensuring inter-agency and ministries/departments/states' collaboration for integrated development
Port Infrastructure Enhancement, including modernization and setting up of new ports
Efficient Evacuation to and from the hinterland

Under this project, the Shipping Ministry has formed a new Committee to set up two major ports at Sagar, West Bengal, and ugarajapatnam, Simandhra.

An illustrative list of the kind of development projects that could be undertaken in the Sagarmala initiative are -

Port-led industrialization
Port-based urbanization
Port-based and coastal tourism and recreational activities
Short-sea shipping coastal shipping and Inland Waterways Transportation
Shipbuilding, ship repair, and ship recycling
Logistics parks, warehousing, maritime zones/services
Integration with hinterland hubs
Offshore storage, drilling platforms
Specialization of ports in certain economic activities such as energy, containers, chemicals, coal, agro products, etc.
Offshore Renewable Energy Projects with base ports for installations