Introduction:
Transport, communication and trade are channels which facilitate movement of goods, people and information. By doing so, they facilitate smooth functioning of the economy.
Economic activities would come to a virtual halt if any of these stops working.
Due to this, transport, communication and trade are called the lifelines of economy.
Transport – Take or carry (people or goods) from one place to another by means of a vehicle, aircraft, or ship is called transport.
Transport plays an important role in the economy.
Because of transport raw materials reach the factory and finished products reach to the consumer.
The pace of development of a country depends upon the production of goods and services as well as their movement over space.
Therefore, efficient means of transport are pre requisites for fast development.
So, an efficient transport system can do wonders for the development of economy.
Means of transport:
Movement of goods and services can be over three important domains of our earth i.e. land, water and air. These also be classified into land, water and air transport.
Today, the world has been converted into a large village with the help of efficient and fast moving transport.
India is well-linked with the rest of the world despite its vast size, diversity and linguistic and socio cultural plurality.
Railways, airways, waterways, newspapers, radio, television, cinema and internet, etc. have been contributing to its socio economic progress in many ways.
The trades from local to international levels have added to the vitality of its economy.
It has enriched our life and added substantially to growing amenities and facilities for the comforts of life.
Importance of means of transport and communication:
The world is developing very fast and means of communication play a vital role in the development of the world.
These help to transfer better technology from one country to other or from one place to other.
Means of communication help the traders to have links with other traders and means of transport provide essential product.
Means of communication act like nervous system in the human body.
Means of transportation carry common people from one place to another.
They maintain the balance of demand and supply in the economy.
These play very vital role in the defence of a country.
They have shortened the distances between various places.
Roadways – A type of transport in which transportation of goods and personnel from one place to the other by roads is called roadways transport.
India has 2nd largest road network in the world (after the USA).
The importance of roadways can be gauged from the fact that 65% of freight traffic and 85% of passenger traffic is carried through roads.
We can claim that the road network in India is a developed one if we look at the road density which is 142.68 km per 100 square km in the country, and this figure makes India the number one country in the world.
But India lags behind many leading nations in terms of length of road per 1000 population. This figure is 4.8 km per 1000 population.
Advantages of roadways over railways:
Roads are better than rails because of many reasons. Some of them are as follows:
Cost of construction of roads is much lower than that of railway lines.
Roads require less investment as compared to railway.
These can be built at higher altitudes and at any place. Maintenance cost is also low.
Extension of agriculture is possible only through road transportation.
It is easy and is within the reach of common man.
It also provides door to door services.
The cost of loading and unloading is much lower.
Road transport is also used as a feeder to other modes of transport such as they provide a link between railway stations, air and sea ports.
Classification of roads – according to their capacity:
Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways:
The super highways have been planned to meet the requirement of fast movement of traffic.
The government has launched a major road development project linking Delhi Kolkata Chennai Mumbai and Delhi by six lane Super Highways.
The North South corridors linking Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) and Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), and East-West corridors connecting Silcher (Assam) and Porbander (Gujarat) are part of this project.
Now, expressways are being built in other corridors as well.
Construction and maintenance of expressways is the responsibility of NHAI (National Highway Authority of India).
Expressways are access controlled and one needs to pay toll to drive through these roads.
Expressways have indeed helped in reducing the travel time in the country.
Major objective:
To reduce the time and distance between the mega cities Implemented by “National Highway Authority of India” (NHAI)
Do you know?
The Ahmadabad Vadodara Expressway is known as one of the best Expressway in India and also referred as the National Expressway.
The 95 km long Express highway connects Ahmadabad and Vadodara and constructed under the Golden Quadrilateral Project by NHAI in 2004.
Mumbai-Pune Expressway is the first Controlled access highway or expressway of India and the recently open Yamuna Expressway is one of the most beautiful roads of Indian road network.
National Highways – The backbone of the road infrastructure that connects every major city of India whether ports, capital of states etc. is called national highways.
These highways link extreme part of the country.
These are primary road system.
The main roads are constructed and maintained by the Central Public works department (CPWD) are known as National Highways.
The National Highways maintain the availability of essential product.
The state to state trade is possible because of National Highways.
National Highway-7 is the longest and traverses 2.369 km between Varanasi and Kanyakumari via Jabalpur, Nagpur, Hyderabad.
Bangaluru and Madurai Delhi and Mumbai are connected by National Highway-8, National Highway-15 covers most of Rajasthan.
State Highways – Roads linking a state capital with different district head quarters are called state highway.
These roads are constructed and maintained by the State Public Works Department (PWD) in State and Union Territories.
State highways join the state capitals with district headquarters and other important towns
These also contribute in the development of states.
District Roads – These roads connect the district headquarters with other places of the district are called district roads
These roads are maintained by Zila Parishad.
Village Roads – Those roads connect the villages with the neighbouring towns and cities are called village roads.
These play very vital role in the development of villages.
These help the farmers to take their products to cities and district head quarters.
These roads received special impetus under the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana.
Under this scheme special provisions are made so that every village in the country is linked to a major town in the country by an all season motorable road.
Border Roads – Roads in the border area of the country are called Border roads.
The Border Roads Organisation was established in 1960 for the development of roads of strategic importance in the northern and north eastern border areas.
These roads have improved transport facilities in terrain and have helped in the economic development of these area
Classification of roads on the basis of type of material:
Metalled roads – A type of road which is made up of cement, concrete or even bitumen of coal is called metalled road.
Metalled roads are suitable for every weathers.
Unmetalled roads – A type of road which is made up of mud and gravel which are generally found in the rural areas is called unmetalled road.
These are uncovered roads.
The usage will be limited during rainy season.
Road Density – The length of road per 100 sq km of area is known as density of road.
Distribution of road is not uniform in the country.
Density of all roads varies from only 12.14 km in Jammu and Kashmir to 517.7 km in Kerala (31st March 2011) with the national average of density of roads 142.68 km (31st March-2011).
Problems faced by road transport:
Road transportation in India faces a number of problems.
Keeping in view the volume of traffic and passengers, the road network is inadequate.
About half of the roads are unmetalled and this limits their usage during the rainy season.
The National Highways are inadequate too.
Moreover, the roadways are highly congested in cities and most of the bridges and culverts are old and narrow
Railways – A means of transferring passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are located on tracks is called railways transport.
Rail transport is ideal for carrying a large number of passengers and large number of items to long distances. India has a well developed rail network.
The Indian Railways have a network of 7,133 stations spread over a route length of 64,460 km.
Railways are the principal mode of transportation for freight and passenger in India.
Railways in India bind the economic life of the country as well as accelerate the development of the industry and agriculture.
The Indian Railways use three types of gauge, details of which are given in the following table.
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Rail Gauge and Length of Routes in India
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| |
Gauge (in m)
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Route (km)
|
Running track (km)
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Total track
|
|
Broad Gauge
|
1.676
|
60,510
|
85.614
|
1,12,388
|
|
Meter Gauge
|
1.000
|
3,880
|
4,170
|
4,747
|
|
Narrow Gauge
|
0.762 & 0.610
|
2,297
|
2,297
|
2,495
|
|
Total
|
|
66,687
|
92,081
|
1,19,630
|
Development of Railways:
The Indian Railways is the largest public sector undertaking in the country, in terms of number of employees.
The first train ran from Mumbai to Thane in 1853, covering a distance of 34 km.
The Indian Railway is now reorganised into 16 zones.
Geographic, economic and administrative factors have influenced the development of railways in India.The rail network is highly dense in the northern plains.
This could be possible because of even topography, high population density and rich agricultural resources present in this region.
The development of rail has been to a lesser degree in other parts of the country because of presence of plateau, desert and mountains.
Development of Konkan Railway along the west coast has immensely helped in economic development in this region.
Main factors which influence the Railway Network:
- Physiographic
- Economic and Administrative
Physiographic Factors:
The level land of the Great Plains has favoured the development of Railways.
The flood plain of Bihar and Assam and the rugged topography of the Himalayan region have led to very few Railways lines.
The sandy desert of Rajasthan and hilly tracts of Sahyadri are unfavorable for the development of Railways.
Economic Factors:
Rich agriculture and greater industrial activity on the Great Plains ha favoured the development of Railways.
Capital of India New Delhi is also located in Northern plain.
Importance of Railways:
It carries most of the long distance passenger’s traffic and 80% of the total freight of the country.
It provides employment to a large number of people in the country.
Iron and steel industry solely depends upon the Railways.
It plays significant role in the Integration of the country by bringing different peoples and regions together.
It carries big cargo of goods from the place of production to the destination and vice versa.
Major problems of Indian Railways:
Most of the railway is very old.
Many passengers travel without tickets.
People pull chains unnecessarily which cause heavy loss to the railways.
Frequent accidents also cause great loss to the railway.
Pipelines – A long pipe, typically underground, for conveying oil, gas, water etc. over long distances is called pipelines.
Traditionally, pipelines have been used to supply drinking water.
But later on, pipelines began to be used for supplying crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas as well.
So, the much needed fuel and some raw materials can be directly supplied from source to factories through pipelines.
From some mines even iron ore is supplied to ports in the form of slurry.
Initial cost of laying pipelines is high but subsequent operational costs are minimal.
Pipelines also help in preventing loss and delays during shipment.
There are three important networks of pipeline transportation in the country.
Digboi to Kanpur:
This pipeline runs from the oilfields in Assam to Kanpur (UP), via Guwahati, Barauni and Allahabad.
One branch from this pipeline goes from Guwahati to Siliguri and another branch goes from Barauni to Haldia, via Rajbandh. A third branch from Rajbandh goes to Maurigram.
Salaya to Jalandhar:
This pipeline runs from Salaya (Gujarat) to Jalandhar (Punjab), via Viramgam, Mathura, Delhi and Sonipat. Branches from this pipeline go to Koyali, Chakshu and other places.
HVJ Pipeline:
This pipeline has been built for transporting gas.
It runs from Hazira (Gujarat) to Jagdishpur (UP), via Vijaipur (or Bijapur) in MP.
It has branches to Kota in Rajasthan, Shahajahanpur, Babrala and other places in Uttar Pradesh.
Advantages of pipeline transportation:
Transportation through pipelines rules out trans-shipment losses or delays.
Though initial cost of laying pipelines is high but running cost is very low.
It maintains continuous supply of gas and oil.
The pipes can be laid through difficult terrains as well as under sea.
Solids can also be transported through a pipeline when converted into slurry.
Waterways – A river, canal, or other body of water serving as a route or way of travel or transport is called a waterways transport.
Waterways are the cheapest means of transport.
They are most suitable for carrying heavy and bulky goods.
It is a fuel-efficient and environment friendly mode of transport.
India has inland navigation waterways of 14,500 km in length.
Out of these only 3,700 km are navigable by mechanised boats.
Importance of Water ways:
Cheapest means of transport. It is most suitable for carrying heavy and bulky goods.
It is a fuel efficient and environment friendly mode of transport
More than 95% of the country’s trade volume is moved by the sea.
With the development of National waterways it has become main source of transportation for the natural trade.
Inland water ways and National water ways:
N.W. No.1– The Ganga River, between Allahabad and Haldia (1620 km)
N.W.No.2 – The Brahmaputra River, between Sadiya and Dhubri (891 km)
N.W. No.3 – Udyogmandal and Champakkara canals-205 km)
N.W. No.4 – Specified stretches of Godavari and Krishna rivers along with Kakinada, Puducherry stretch of canals (1078 km)
N.W. No.5 – The West Coast canal, in Kerala (Kottapuram, Kollam, Specified stretches of river Brahmani along with Matai river, delta channels of Mahanadi, and Brahmani, rivers and East Coast Canal (588 km)
There are some other inland water ways on which substantial transportation takes place.
These are Mandavi, Zuari and Cumberjua, Sunderbans, Barak and backwaters of Kerala.
Major sea ports of India:
With a long coastline of 7,516.6 km, India is dotted with 13 major and 187 medium and minor ports, which make up for the total 200 ports.
These major ports handle 74% of cargo and 95% of India’s foreign trade.
Kandla:
It is in Kuchchh district of Gujarat.
It was the first port developed just after independence to ease the load on Mumbai port.
The load on Mumbai port had increased because Karachi port went to Pakistan after partition.
Kandla is a tidal port.
It caters to the convenient handling of exports and imports of highly productive granary and industrial belt stretching across the north to west India.
States of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Mumbai:
It is the biggest port with a spacious natural and well sheltered harbour.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port:
The port was planned with a view to decongest Mumbai port and serve as hub port for this region.
Marmagao Port (Goa):
It is the premier iron ore exporting port of the country.
This ports accounts for about 50% of India’s iron ore export.
New Mangalore:
The port is located in Karnataka.
It caters to the export of iron ore concentrates from Kudremukh mines.
Kochi:
It is the extreme south-western port, located at the entrance of lagoon with a natural harbour.
Tuticorin:
The port is in Tamil Nadu. This port has a natural harbour and rich hinterland.
It has a flourishing trade handling of a large variety of cargoes to Sri Lanka & Maldives etc. and the coastal regions of India.
Chennai:
It is one of the oldest artificial ports of the country.
It is ranked next to Mumbai in terms of the volume of trade and cargo.
Vishakhapatnam:
It is the deepest land locked and well protected port.
This port was originally, conceived as an outlet for iron ore exports.
Paradip:
The port is located in Odisha, specialises in the export of iron ore.
Kolkata :
It is an inland riverine port.
This port serves a very large and rich hinterland of Ganga Brahmaputra basin.
Being a tidal port, it requires constant dredging of Hoogly.
Haldia:
It is in West Bengal.
It was development as a subsidiary port, in order to relieve growing pressure on the Kolkata port.
The nine coastal Indian states Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are home to all major and minor ports of India. The long coastline of India forms one of the biggest piece of land into a body of water
Do you know?
The Mahatma Gandhi Setu river road bridge over the holy river Ganges in Bihar, connecting the capital city of Patna in the south to Hajipur.
Mahatma Gandhi Setu is 5.5 km long, 4 lane roadway with 48 pilers, which makes India’s longest river road bridge and one of the longest bridges in the world.
Airways – The movement of passengers and cargo by aircraft such as airplanes and helicopters is called airways transport.
Air transport is faster than any other means of transport.
It is highly convenient for long distance travel.
India is the 3rd largest civil aviation market in the world (2017).
The air transport in India carried 131 million passengers in 2016.
Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir are some major airlines in the country.
The regulatory authority for air transport is named DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation).
Indira Gandhi International Airport (New Delhi) is the busiest airport in the country.
The government has recently announced the UDAN-RCS initiative.
UDAN stands for Ude Desh Ke Aam Naagrik, while RCS stands for Regional Connectivity Scheme.
This scheme has been launched to connect smaller towns with air transport network.
Moreover, this plan also aims at providing affordable air tickets to the common people.
Advantages of Airways:
It is the fastest means of transport and saves time.
It can cover very difficult terrains like high mountains, desert, thick forests and long stretches of seas with great ease.
It also helps in increasing the trade especially that of perishable product.
It reduces pressure from roadways and railways.
It was nationalised in 1953.
On the operational side, Indian Airlines, Alliance Air (subsidiary of Indian Airlines), private scheduled airlines and non- scheduled operators provide domestic air services.
Air India provides international air services.
Pawanhans Helicopters Ltd. provides helicopter services to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in its off-shore operations, to inaccessible areas and difficult terrains like the north-eastern states and the interior parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Indian Airlines operations also extend to the neighbouring countries of South and south-east Asia and the Middle East. Air travel is not within the reach of the common people.
It is only in the north-eastern states that special provisions are made to extend the services to the common people.
Communication – The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium is called communication.
There are basically two types of means of communication:
Personal communication
Mass communication
Personal communication – The process of exchange of information, ideas and feelings between two or more people through verbal or non-verbal methods is called personal communication.
Personal messages are exchanged.
These can be used by individual for his personal activity.
Telephone, Mobile, Postal services, post cards, etc are the main sources of personal communication.
Indian postal system:
It is the largest in the world.
It handles parcels as well as personal written communication.
Cards and envelopes are considered first class mail and are airlifted between stations covering both land and air.
The second class mail includes the book packets, registered newspaper and periodicals.
They are carried by surface mail covering land and water transport.
Mail channels –
To facilitate quick services six mail channels have been introduced recently.
They are called Rajdhani Channel, Metro Channel, Green Channel Business Channel, Bulk Mail Channel and Periodical Channel.
Do you know?
On 18 February 1911, world’s first official airmail flight was started.
World’s highest post office is located in Hikkim, Himachal Pradesh, India (height is 4,700 m).
Telecommunication:
India has one of the largest telephone networks in the Asia.
India is the 2nd largest telephone market in the world in terms of number of subscribers.
In 2019, there were 1.1724 billion telephone subscribers in India.
India has the 2nd largest internet user base and the figure is 661.94 million.
There are 121 crore mobile phones being used in India.
Before mobile phone became part of our everyday life, people used to rely on landline telephones.
In those days, it was difficult to get connected through telephone.
So, the government introduced STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling) facility.
Uniform rate of STD facilities all over India has been made possible by integrating the development in space technology with communication technology.
This helped in connecting the remotest part of the country with telephone.
Now, STD booths have become a thing of history.
Mobile phones have changed the way people communicate.
Penetration of mobile phone has helped every section of society in business transaction.
The arrival of smart phones further opened the unlimited opportunities for facilitating business interaction.
Mass communication – The means of communication through which we can communicate with a large number of people are called mass communication.
In mass communication one person can communicate with several people at the same time.
They can be used by the government to create awareness people about various national programmes.
Radio, television, newspapers, magazines, books and films are the modes of mass communication.
All India Radio (Akashwani) and Doordarshan (Television Network) are owned by the government and they have reach to every nook and corner of the country.
DTH (Direct to Home) facility has helped in proliferation of private television channels to most of the parts of the country.
Newspapers:
India publishes a large number of newspapers and periodicals annually.
They are of different types depending upon their periodicity.
Newspapers are published in about 100 languages and dialects.
Hindi newspapers are being published in the largest numbers, followed by English and Urdu newspapers.
Films:
India is the largest producer of feature films in the world.
It produces short films; video feature films and video short films.
The Central Board of Film Certification is the authority to certify both Indian and foreign films.
Do you know?
Digital India is an umbrella programme to prepare India for a knowledge based transformation.
The focus of Digital India Programme is on being transformative to realise – IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology) =IT (India Tomorrow) and is on making technology central to enabling change.
International Trade – Trade between two countries is called international trade.
It may take place through sea, air or land routes.
Advancement of international trade of a country is an index to its economic prosperity.
It is, therefore, considered the economic barometer for a country.
Trade – The exchange of goods and services among people, states and countries is called trade.
Market– The place where exchange of goods takes place is called market.
Importance of Trade:
No country can survive without international trade because resources are space bound.
Advancement of international trade of a country leads to its economic prosperity.
We earn much of our foreign exchange which is required for importing many essential goods.
Export and import are the two compounds of trade.
International trade of a country is considered its economic barometer
Export – When the goods are sent to other country for sale it is called as export.
Import – When the goods come from other country to be sold in India it is called import.
Favourable balance of trade – If the value of exports of any country is more than the value of Imports. It is called a favourable balance of trade.
Unfavorable balance of trade – The value of imports is more than the value of exports, it is called an unfavorable balance of trade.
Import and exports of India:
India has trade relations with all the major trading blocks and all geographical regions of the world.
Among the commodities in export the share of agriculture and allied products has been 9.9 per cent, ores and minerals 4.0%, gems and jewellery 14.7 percent, petroleum products (including coal) 16.8 per cent in 2010-11.
The commodities imported to India include petroleum and petroleum products (28.6 percent), pearls and precious stones (9.4 percent), chemicals (5.2 percent), coal, coke and briquettes (2.7 percent), machinery (6.4 percent) in 2010-11.
Bulk imports as a group registered a growth accounting for 28.2 percent of total imports.
This group includes fertilizers (3.4 percent), cereals (14.3 percent), edible oils (17.4 percent) and newsprint (Paper board manufacture and newsprint 40.3 percent) in 2010-11.
International trade has under gone a sea change in the last fifteen years.
Exchange of commodities and goods has been superseded by the exchange of information and knowledge.
India has emerged as a software giant at the international level and it is earning large foreign exchange through the export of Information technology
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Commodities
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Share in Exports
|
|
Agriculture and allied products
|
9.9%
|
|
Ores and minerals
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4%
|
|
Gems and jewelry
|
14.7%
|
|
Petroleum products
|
16.8%
|
Export (2010-11)
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Commodities
|
Share in Imports
|
|
Petroleum and petroleum products
|
28.6%
|
|
Pearls and precious stones
|
9.4%
|
|
Inorganic chemicals
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5.2%
|
|
Coke, coal, briquettes
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2.7%
|
|
Machinery
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6.4%
|
Major Imports to India (2010-11)
Bulk imports as a group registered a growth accounting for 28.2 per cent of total imports.
This group includes fertilizers (3.4 per cent), cereals (14.3 per cent), edible oils (17.4 per cent) and newsprint (40.3 per cent).
There had been dramatic changes in international trade in the last two decades.
Commodities and goods are being replaced by information and knowledge; as items of exchange.
Tourism – The activities of people traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for leisure, business or other purposes for not more than one consecutive year is called tourism.
Importance of Tourism:
It helps in earning foreign exchange.
It provides direct as well as indirect employment to people.
Tourism helps in promoting national integration.
It supports cottage and handicraft industry because foreigners like to purchase these products.
Tourism helps in understanding culture and heritage.
This helps in developing a sense of cross-cultural sensibilities.
It helps in developing friendly relation with other countries and promotes international understandings.
Tourism as a Trade:
Tourism in India has grown substantially over the last three decades.
Foreign tourist’s arrivals in the country witnessed an increase of 11.8 per cent during the year 2010 as against the year 2009, contributing Rs 64,889 crore of foreign exchange in 2010.
5.78 million Foreign tourists visited India in 2010.
More than 15 million people are directly engaged in the tourism industry.
Tourism also promotes national integration, provides support to local handicrafts and cultural pursuits.
It also helps in the development of international understanding about our culture and heritage.
Foreign tourists visit India for heritage tourism, eco tourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism, medical tourism and business tourism.
Rajasthan, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and temple towns of south India are important destinations of foreign tourists in India.
There is vast potential of tourism development in the north-eastern states and the interior parts of Himalayas, but due to strategic reasons these have not been encouraged so far.
However, there lies a bright future ahead for this upcoming industry.
|
Tourism in 2011
|
|
Foreign tourists’ arrival
|
+23.5%
|
|
Foreign Exchange
|
64889 crore rupees
|
|
No. of foreign tourists
|
5.78 million
|
|
No. of people directly employed in tourism
|
15 million
|
