India Roads, Railways, Ports & Airways - Civil Services Preparation Online! UPSC & IAS Study Material

India Roads, Railways, Ports & Airways

by Devender

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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

  • 4 Indian Airways

    Indian Airlines was nationalized in 1953 and it is managed by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).

  • Green Investment
  • It is the fresh investment done to build up a new airport from scratch. For Example - Bangalore & Hyderabad Airports

  • Brown Investment

It is the investment done to repair old airports such as Delhi & Mumbai Airports.



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