Indian Transportation : Roadways, Railways, Airways, Waterways

Transportation in India

Transport in the Republic of India is an important part of the nation's economy. Since the economic liberalization of the 1990s, development of infrastructure within the country has progressed at a rapid pace, and today there is a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.

Road Transport

• The road transport plays a significant role in the social and economic development in any country.
• Indian road network is 33 lakh km. long, second largest in the world and consists of:
• National Highways
• State highways and
• Border Roads

National Highways

• They are constructed and maintained by the central government.
• The national highways are 70,934 km long comprising only 2.4% of the total length of roads, carries about 40% of the total traffic in India.
• The Golden Quadrilateral Project connecting the four Metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata covers a total distance of 5952 km.

Some Important Highways

National Highways	Route	Length
NH1	Delhi-Indo Pak border	1226 km
NH2	Delhi-Kolkata	1490 km
NH3	Agra-Mumbai	1161 km
NH4	Mumbai-Chennai	1415 km
NH5	Kolkata-Chennai	1610 km
NH6	Kolkata-Chennai	1945 km
NH7	Kolkata-Mumbai	2369 km
NH8	Delhi-Jaipur-Mumbai	2058 km

• The longest National Highway in India is NH-7.
• The shortest National Highway in India is 47-A. Its length is 6km.
• Maharashtra has the maximum length of roads.
• Maharashtra also has the maximum length of metal roads.
• Odisha has the maximum length of unpaved roads.
• Goa has the maximum road density and Jammu-Kashmir has minimum road density.

Rail Transport

• Indian Railway system is the largest in Asia. The fourth largest in the world.
• It is the biggest departmental public undertaking in the country.
• The first train in India ran between Bombay and Thane, a stretch of 34 km in 1853.
• The headquarters of Indian Railway is in New Delhi.
• The first electric train in India was ‘Deccan Queen’. It was introduced in 1929 between Bombay and Pune.
• The fastest train in India is Shatabdi Express whose maximuim speed is 140 km/hr.
• The total route covered is approx. 63,000km.
• The longest train route is of ‘Bibek Express’ from Dibrugarh in Assam to Kanyakumari.
• The first Metro rail was introduced in Kolkata in 1984.
• Now metro rail is also available in Delhi and Bangalore.

• The Indian Railways operate in three different gauges.

1. Broad Gauge (1.676m)
2. Metro Gauge (1m)
3. Narrow Gauge (0.762m or 0.610m)

Indian railway is divided into 17 zones

Railways	Headquarters
Central	Mumbai(V.T.)
Eastern	Kolkata
Northern	New Delhi
North-Easter	Gorakhpur
North-East Frontier	Gowahati
Southern	Chennai
South-Central	Secundrabad
South Eastern	Kolkata
Western	Mumbai Church gate
East Coast	Bhubaneshwar
East Central	Hajipur
North Central	Allahabad
North Western	Jaipur
South Western	Hubli(Bangalore)
West Central	Jabalpur
South-East Central	Bilaspur
Konkan Railway	Navi Mumbai

Konkan Railway

• The Konkan Railway has been laid down between Roha near Mumbai and Mangalore in Karnataka.
• Its length is 760km.
• The largest route of this railway is found in Maharashtra, and then comes the position of Karnataka and then Goa.
• The Konkan Rail project was started in 1990 and the entire railway was inaugurated in January 26, 1998.

Railway Manufacturing Units

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works

• Located in Chittaranjan (W.B.) manufactures Electric Engines.

Diesel Locomotive Works

• Located in Varanasi (U.P.) manufactures Diesel Engines.

Integral Coach Factory

• Located at Perambur (Tamil Nadu) manufactures rail coaches.

Diesel Component Works

• Located at Patiala (Punjab) manufactures Components of diesel engines

Rail Coach Factory

• Located at Kapurthala (Punjab) manufactures rail coaches.

Air Transport

• The air transport in India started in 1911 when the world’s first Airplane post service was started between Allahabad and Naini.
• The Indian Airlines Corporation having Headquarters in New Delhi was established to conduct the air service within the country.
• Besides it also provides services to the neighboring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives.
• J.R.D Tata was the first person to make a solo flight from Mumbai to Karachi in 1931.
• In 1953, all the private Airline companies were nationalized and Indian Airlines and Air India came into existence.
• Vayudoot Limited started in 1981 as a private air carrier and later it was merged with Indian Airlines. Pawan Hans Limited provided helicopter support services to oil sector, hill stations and remote areas.
• A number of private airlines also operate in India. They are Jet Airways, Sahara etc.

International Airports in India:

Now there are 13 International Airports in India:

1. Jawaharlal Nehru Airport (Santacruz-Mumbai)
2. Shubhas Chandra Bose Airport (Dum-Dum-Kolkata)
3. Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi)
4. Meenabakkam (Chennai)
5. Thiruvananthapuram
6. Bangalore
7. Ahmadabad
8. Amritsar
9. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (Hyderabad)
10. Kochi
11. Jaipur
12. Luck now
13. Srinagar

Water Transport

• India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. The total navigable length is 14,500 kilometers (9,000 mi), out of which about 5,200 km (3,231 mi) of river and 485 km (301 mi) of canals can be used by mechanized crafts.
• The waterways of the country have been divided into internal waterways and oceanic waterways.

The following waterways have been declared as National Waterways:

National Waterways	Route	Length
NW-1	Allahabad - Haldia	1,629 km
NW-2	Saidiya - Dhubri	891 km
NW-3	Kollam - Kottapuram	205 km
NW-4	Bhadrachalam - Rajahmundry and Wazirabad - Vijaywada	1095 km
NW-5	Mangalgadi - Paradeep and Talcher - Dhamara	623 km