Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 10 Social Science Notes Chapter 13 Transport and Communication
Basic infrastructure can be divided into two parts:
(a) Basic physical infrastructure (includes transport, electricity, communication, etc. and
(b) Basic social infrastructure (includes human resources).
Transport
Surface Transport:
The modes of transport which carry people, goods and services on land come under surface transport. Surface transport is mainly divided into roadways, railways and pipelines.
Roadways
- India has a large network of road which spans over 3.3 lakh km. The road network of India is the second largest road network in the world.
- As per the latest estimates, 65% goods and 80% passengers are carried by roadways.
- Road transport is increasing at the annual rate of 7 – 10%, while growth in number of vehicles has been 12% in recent years. Increasing importance of road transport over rail transport is because of following reasons:
- Cost of construction of roads is less than that of railway lines.
- Roads can be made even on uneven topography.
- Roads can be built even on steep slopes and in hilly areas.
- Road transport is cost effective in carrying less number of people, low amount of good, to small distance.
Roads in India are divided into four categories which are as follows:
Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways:
The government of India has started an ambitious project to connect Delhi-Kolkata, Chennai-Mumbai and Delhi by 6-lane super highways. This project is under National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
National Highway: These highways connect far flung areas of the country. They make the primary road network which is built and maintained by Central Public Works Department (CPWD).
- The NH 8 is the most important and the busiest national highway. Its length in Rajasthan is 685 km. This national highway goes from Delhi to Mumbai via Jaipur, Ajmer and Udaipur.
- The National Highway 11 is the most important highway from the point of security. This highway goes from Bharatpur to Bikaner via Dausa, Jaipur and Sikar.
- The NH 14 goes from Jaipur to Bhopal via Tonk, Bundi, Kota and Jhalawpr. Its length in Rajasthan is 875 km.
- Only 28 km portion of the NH 3 goes through Rajasthan. This national highway passes through Dhaulpur district.
State Highway:
The roads which connect the state capital, important cities, towns and district headquarters, and connect with national highways and highways to neighbouring states are called state highways. The construction and maintenance of these roads is the responsibility of the Public Works Department (PWD) of a state.
District Road:
The roads connecting the tehsils, main towns and industrial areas to district headquarter and to each other are called district roads.
Other Roads:
The roads which connect rural areas to towns are called other roads. Development of these roads is being encouraged under Prime Minister Road Project.
Border Road:
Construction and maintenance of border roads is the responsibility of Border Road Organisation which comes under the government of India. This organization was established with the aim of integrated and rapid development of road network in frontier areas of north and northeast.
Rajasthan Road Vision 2025
Rajasthan Road Vision 2025 has been prepared to transform the road network in Rajasthan. The PWD prepared a long term vision for development of roads in the initial twenty five years of the 21st century. This vision gives importance to construction, maintenance and quality of roads. Under this vision stress was given on connecting all villages during the initial 15 years followed by construction of expressways, flyovers and four-lane roads.
Railways:
The total length of rail lines in India was 67,312 km as on 31st March 2016. This network has 7133 railway stations, 9213 rail engines, 53220 passenger trains, 6493 other trains and 2,29,381 coaches. Rail transport is suffering from many setbacks. A large number of people resort to ticketless travel. Many people damage the railways’ property and commit theft and robbery. Many passengers unnecessarily pull the chain to stop the train without schedule. This results in heavy losses to the railways.
Rajasthan has about 11% of total rail network of the country. The total length of rail lines in Rajasthan was 5t84 km as on March 2011.
Pipeline:
Pipeline has emerged as a new mode of transport on the transport map of India. Earlier, pipelines were used for supplying water in cities and industries. Today, pipelines are being used for transporting crude oil, petroleum products, natural gas and CNG to factories and to cities. There are three main networks of pipeline in the country.
- From the oil fields of upper Assam to Barauni followed by the pipeline to Kanpur via Allahabad. One branch goes from Barauni to Haldia via Rajbandh. Another branch goes from Rajbandh to Mauri Gram and third branch is from Guwahati to Siliguri.
- From Salava to Viram Gaon in Gujarat, to Jalandhar (Punjab) via Mathura-Delhi and Sonipat. One branch of this pipeline connects Koyli (near Vadodra) to Chakshu and to other places.
- From Hajira (Gujarat) to Jagdishpur (UP). This pipeline goes via Vijaypur (Madhya Pradesh). Its branches are in Kota (Rajasthan), Shahjahanpur and Barala (UP).
Waterways:
Water transport is the cheapest mode of transport because no investment is required to construct the transport route. At present, there is a 14,500 km long internal waterways in India which includes rivers, canals, backwaters, lakes, and gulfs. About 3700 km long route is being used in the major rivers in the country.
National Waterways :
The following waterways have been categorized as the national waterways by the government:
- National Waterway 1: The Ganges between Haldia and Allahabad which is 1620 km long.
- National Waterway 2: The Brahmaputra between Sadia and Dhuwri which is 891 km long.
- National Waterway 3: Coastal canal of Kerala (from Kotapuram to Kollam; Udyog Mandal and Champakkash Canals) which is 205 km long.
- National Waterway 4: 1100 km long route between Kakinada and Bharkanan.
- National Waterway 5: 588 km long route of delta channel of Matai, Mahanadi, Brahmani rivers and east-coastal canal along with extension of Brahmani river.
Major Ports
Ports are the place where ships anchor, take fuel and load and unload goods. Along the 7,516.6 km long coast in India; there are 12 major and 187 medium and small ports. The major ports facilitate 95% of international trade of the country.
Kandla is a tidal port. This port controls the industrial and agricultural export-import of Jammu Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Mumbai is the largest port with natural harbor. To reduce the load on Mumbai port the Jawaharlal Nehru Port was developed near it so that port facilities can be provided to the whole area.
Chennai is the second largest port in terms of handling of goods and value of trade. Paradip port (Odisha) specializes in export of iron ore. Kolkata port is an inland river port. This port is situated on Hooghly about 148 from the sea shore.
Airways:
The International Airport Authorities of India manages the four big airports of country, i.e. Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. The National Airport Authorities looks after domestic airports and civil runways on defence airports.
The airports in the country are divided into four categories on the basis of their functions, specialities, importance and facilities.
- International Airport: These airports provide international flights. Following are the international airports in India: Jawaharlal Nehru Airport (Santa Cruz Airport, Mumbai), Subhash Chandra Bose Airport (Damdam Airport, Kolkata), Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi), Meenambakam (Chennai) and Tiruvananthapuram.
- First Class Airport: These airports have landing and takeoff facilities for planes of all sizes. Following are the first classairports: Agartala, Ahmadabad, Raja Sesi (Amritsar), Amausi (Lukcnow), Patna, Begumpet (Hyderabad), St. Thomas (Chennai), Safdarjung (Delhi), Guwahati, Jaipur, Nagpur, Tiruchirapalli, Barhapani (Shillong), etc.Apart from them, there are 38 medium and 28 small airports and flying clubs (government aided) where pilots are given training.
The airport at Sanganer (Jaipur) is a first class airport in Rajasthan. Additionally; medium airports are present at Ratanara (Jodhpur) and Dabok (Udaipur) which have connectivity with some major cities. There is a small airport at Kota. An airport is being built near Kishangarh (Ajmer).
Communication Services
Internet: Internet began in 1969. During initial days, internet was used for exchange of data over a limited area. Beginning of e-mail in 1972 brought a revolution in communication.
Internet services are available as broadband service through telephone lines, and through 2G, 3G and 4G networks on mobile phones.
Telephone: Telephone facilitates conversation between two people who are sitting at distant places. Beginning of STD and ISD facilities in telephone helped in directly dialing numbers to any place within the country or to any country in the world. Use of STD and ISD involves using STD or ISD code of a place followed by dialing the number.
Mobile Phone: Invention of mobile phone brought a revolution in the field of telephony. Mobile phones enable us to directly talk to a person (who is using a mobile phone). High speed 3G and 4G internet services are available through mobile phones.