General Knowledge / Transport Systems In IndiaTransport / TransportationIt is used to carry people / animals / goods from one place to another by means of a vehicle, aircraft /ship. Modes of transport in India 1. Land (Rail & Road). 2. Water (Inland waterways, Oceanic waterways). 3. Air. 4. Cable. 5. Pipeline and space. Railways Rail operations in India are handled by Indian Railways (IR), a state-owned organization of the Ministry of Railways. Based on distance between the Railways Lines, there are 3 systems operating in the Country. 1. Broad Gauge – Distance 1.67m 2. Meter Gauge – Distance 1.00m 3. Narrow Gauge – Distance 0.762 or 0.610 m It manages the fourth largest railway network in the world by size, with a route length of 67,368-kilometre (41,861 mi) and total track length of 121,407-kilometre (75,439 mi) as of March 2017. Routes are electrified with 25 kV AC electric traction while thirty three percent of them are double or multi-tracked.
Road India has a road network of over 5,903,293 kilometers (3,668,136 mi) as of 31 January 2019, the second largest road network in the world. Growth of Road Network by Categories (in kilometers)
National Highways in India, by state and union territories and maintaining agency
Water transport ways Water transport is of 2 types. 1. Inland waterways. 2. Oceanic waterways. Inland Waterways It is a network in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks that can be used for transportation in place of or in addition to roads and rails. The total navigable length is 14,500 km (9,000 mi), out of which about 5,200 km (3,200 mi) of the river and 4,000 km (2,500 mi) of canals can be used by mechanised crafts. Cargo transport in an organised manner is confined to a few waterways in Goa, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala. Inland waterways in India consist of the Ganges Bhagirathi Hooghly Rivers, the Brahmaputra, the Barak River, the rivers in Goa, the backwaters in Kerala, inland waters in Mumbai and the deltaic regions of the Godavari-Krishna rivers. About 44 million tonnes (49,000,000 short tons) of cargo is moved annually through these waterways using mechanised vessels and country boats. Ocean transport It is a form of waterways the goods are usually transferred from one land mass to another from the oceans and the seas. In this process the goods are usually passed through some specific routes or sea routes eg. The Mediterranean-Indian ocean sea route, The Cape of Good Hope sea route etc. India has the largest merchant shipping fleet amongst the developing countries and rank 19th amongst the countries. It has a wide coast line of nearly 4200 miles. The transport facilities available along the vast coast line of the country through ships is called coastal shipping. The shipping policy committee recommended that Indian ships should secure 100% of her coastal trade. There has been sharp decline in coastal shipping operation. In 1961, there were 97 ships and in 1980 the number came down to 56. Air Ports An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports often have facilities to store and maintain aircraft, and a control tower. As of 2013, there are 45 heliports in India. India also has the world's highest helipad at the Siachen Glacier at a height of 6400 m (21,000 ft) above mean sea level. Sea Ports In India the Ministry of Shipping, around 95 per cent of India's trading by volume and 70 per cent by value is done through maritime transport. It is serviced by 13 major ports (12 Government-owned and one private) and 187 notified minor and intermediate ports. The total 200 non-major ports are present in the following States: Maharashtra (53), Gujarat (40), Tamil Nadu (15), Karnataka (10) and others). Government of India plans to modernise these ports and has approved a project called Sagarmala. Cable transport It is a broad class of transport modes that have cables. They transport passengers and goods, often in vehicles called cable cars. The cable may be driven or passive, and items may be moved by pulling, sliding, sailing, or by drives within the object being moved on cableways. The use of pulleys and balancing of loads moving up and down are common elements of cable transport. They are often used in mountainous areas where cable haulage can overcome large differences in elevation. Pipelines 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. Length of pipelines for crude oil is 20,000 km (12,427 mi). Length of Petroleum products pipeline is 15,000 kilometers (9,300 mi). 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. (NASA appropriated the name for its Space Shuttle Program, the only component of the proposal to survive Congressional funding approval). 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 a human landing mission to Mars. Home Back |