Monday 17 November 2014

Smart Notes on Indian (Economic) Geography Part - 16

Roadways

1.       Aggregating to about 2.3 million km at present.
2.       In India, roadways have preceded railways.
3.       They still have an edge over railways in view of the ease with which they can be built and maintained.
4.       In India, roads are classified in the following six classes according to their capacity

 Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways

1.       The government has launched a major road development project linking Delhi-Kolkata Chennai-Mumbai and Delhi. By six-lane Super Highways.
2.       The North-South corridors linking Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) and Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu),
3.       And East-West Corridor connecting Silchar (Assam) and Porbandar (Gujarat) are part of this project
4.       These highway projects are being implemented by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
National Highways
·         National Highways link extreme parts of the country
·         These are the primary road systems and are laid and maintained by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD).
·         The historical Sher Shah Suri Marg is called National Highway No.1 between Delhi and Amritsar.

Do you know?
National Highway-7 is the longest and traverses 2, 369 km between Varanasi and Kanyakumari
Via Jabalpur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Madurai
Delhi and Mumbai are connected by National Highway-8, while National Highway-15 covers most of Rajasthan.

State Highways

1.       Roads linking a state capital with different district headquarters are known as State Highways.
2.       These roads are constructed and maintained by the State Public Works Department (PWD) in State and Union Territories.

District Roads

·         These roads connect the district headquarters with other places of the district. These roads are maintained by the Zila Parishad.

Other Roads

·         Rural roads, which link rural areas and villages with towns, are classified under this category
·         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

1.       Apart from these, Border Roads Organisation a Government of India undertaking constructs and maintains roads in the bordering areas of the country.
2.       This organisation was established in 1960 for the development of the roads of strategic importance in the northern and north-eastern border areas.

Road Density

1.       The length of road per 100 sq. km of area is known as density of roads.
2.       Distribution of road is not uniform in the country.
3.       Density of all roads varies from only 10 km in Jammu & Kashmir to 375 km in Kerala with the national average of 75 km (1996-97).

Railways

1.       The Indian Railway have a network of 7, 031 stations spread over a route length of 63, 221 km.
2.       with a fleet of 7817 locomotives, 5321 passenger service vehicles, 4904 other coach vehicles and 228, 170 wagons as on 31 March 2004.
3.       The Indian Railways is the largest public sector undertaking in the country.
4.       The first train steamed off from Mumbai to Thane in 1853, covering a distance of 34 km.
5.       The Indian Railway network runs on multiple gauge operations

Gauge in metres                                Route (Km)               Running Track (Km)               Total Track (Km.)
Broad Gauge (1. 676)                      46, 807                            66, 754                                    88, 547
Metro Gauge (1.000)                      13, 209                            13, 976                                    16, 489
Narrow Gauge (0.762 & 0.610)      3, 124                              3, 129                                      3, 450
6.       The Indian Railway is now reorganised into 16 zones
Pipelines
1.       Pipeline transport network is a new arrival on the transportation map of India.
2.       There are three important networks of pipeline transportation in the country.
3.       From oil field in upper Assam to Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), via Guwahati, Barauni and Allahabad.
4.       It has branches from Barauni to Haldia, via Rajbandh, Rajbandh to Maurigram and Guwahati to Siliguri.
5.       From Salaya in Gujarat to Jalandhar in Punjab, via Viramgam, Mathura, Delhi and Sonipat.
6.       It has branches to connect Koyali (near Vadodara, Gujarat) Chakshu and other places.
7.       Gas pipeline from Hazira in Gujarat connects Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh, via Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh
8.       It has branches to Kota in Rajasthan, Shahajahanpur, Babrala and other places in Uttar Pradesh.

Waterways

1.       Waterways are the cheapest means of transport
2.       They are most suitable for carrying heavy and bulky goods.
3.       It is a fuel-efficient and environment friendly mode of transport.
4.       India has inland navigation waterways of 14,500 km in length.
5.       Out of these only 3,700 km are navigable by mechanised boats.
6.       The following waterways have been declared as the National Waterways by the Government.
7.       The Ganga River between Allahabad and Haldia (1620 km)-N.W. No.1
8.       The Brahmaputra River between Sadiya and Dhubri (891 km)-N.W. No.2
9.       The West-Coast Canal in Kerala (Kottapurma-Komman, Udyogamandal and Champakkara canals-205 km) – N.W. No.3
10.   The other viable inland waterways include the Godavari, Krishna, Barak, Sunderbans, Buckingham Canal, Brahmani, East-west Canal and Damodar Valley Corporation Canal.
11.   95 per cent of the country’s trade volume (68 per cent in terms of value) is moved by sea.

Major Sea Ports

1.       With a long coastline of 7,516.6 km, India is dotted with 12 major and 181 medium and minor ports.
2.       These major ports handle 95 per cent of India’s foreign trade. Kandla in Kuchchh w
3.       Kandla in Kuchchh was the first port developed soon after Independence to ease the volume of trade on the Mumbai port,
4.       In the wake of loss of Karachi port to Pakistan after the Partition
5.       Kandla is a tidal port. It caters to the convenient handling of exports and imports of
6.       highly productive granary and industrial belt stretching across the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
7.       Mumbai is the biggest port with a spacious natural and well-sheltered harbour.
8.       The Jawaharlal Nehru port was planned with a view to decongest the Mumbai port and serve as a
9.       Hub port for this region
10.   Marmagao port (Goa) is the premier iron ore exporting port of the country.
11.   This port accounts for about fifty per cent of India’s iron ore export
12.   New Mangalore port, located in Karnataka caters to the export of iron ore concentrates from Kudremukh mines.
13.   Kochi is the extreme south-western port, located at the entrance of a lagoon with a natural harbour.
14.   Along the east coast,
15.   The extreme south-eastern port of Tuticorin, in Tamil Nadu.
16.   This port has a natural harbour and rich hinterland
17.   Thus, it has a flourishing trade handling of a large variety of cargoes to even our neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, etc.
18.   Chennai is one of the oldest artificial ports of the country.
19.   It is ranked next to Mumbai in terms of the volume of trade and cargo.
20.   Vishakhapatnam is the deepest landlocked and well-protected port
21.   This port was, originally, conceived as an outlet for iron ore exports
22.   Paradip port located in Orissa, specialises in the export of iron ore
23.   This port serves a very large and rich hinterland of Ganga- Brahmaputra basin
24.   Being a tidal port, it requires constant dredging of Hoogly.
25.   Haldia port was developed as a subsidiary port, in order to relieve growing pressure on the Kolkata port.

Airways

1.       The air transport was nationalised in 1953
2.       Indian Airlines, Alliance Air (subsidiary of Indian Airlines), private scheduled airlines and non- scheduled operators provide domestic air services.
3.       Air India provides international air services
4.       Pawanhans Helicopters Ltd. provides helicopter services to Oil and Natural Gas Commission in its off- shore operations,
5.       To inaccessible areas and difficult terrains like the north-eastern states and the interior parts of Jammu and Kashmir,
6.       It is only in the north-eastern states that special provisions are made to extend the services to the common people.

Communication

1.       To facilitate quick delivery of mails in large towns and cities
2.       Six mail channels have been introduced recently
3.       They are called Rajdhani Channel, Metro Channel, and Green Channel
4.       Business Channel, Bulk Mail Channel and Periodical Channel
5.       Mass communication provides entertainment and creates awareness among people about various national programmes and policies.
6.       All India Radio (Akashwani) broadcasts a variety of programmes in national, regional and local languages for various categories of people, spread over different parts of the country
7.       Doordarshan, the national television channel of India, is one of the largest terrestrial networks in the world.
8.       It broadcasts a variety of programmes from entertainment, educational to sports, etc. for people of different age groups
9.       The largest number of newspapers published in the country are in Hindi, followed by English and Urdu
10.   India is the largest producer of feature films in the world
11.   It produces short films; video feature films and video short films
12.   The Central Board of Film Certification is the authority to certify both Indian and foreign films

International Trade

1.       The exchange of goods among people, states and countries is referred to as trade
2.       The exchange of goods among people, states and countries is referred to as trade
3.       It may take place through sea, air or land routes.
4.       Advancement of international trade of a country is an index to its economic prosperity.
5.       It is, therefore, considered the economic barometer for a country.
6.       Among the commodities of export,
·         Agriculture and allied products
·         Ores and minerals
·         Gems and jewellery
·         Chemical and allied products
·         Engineering goods
·         Petroleum products
7.       The commodities imported to India include
·         Petroleum and petroleum products
·         Earls and precious stones
·         Inorganic chemicals
·         Coal, coke and briquettes
·         Machinery
·         Bulk imports as a group registered a growth accounting for 39.09 per cent of total imports.
·         This group includes
·         Fertilizers
·         Cereals
·         Edible oils
·         Newsprint
8.       India has emerged as a software giant at the international level and it is earning large foreign exchange through the export of information technology.

Tourism as a Trade

9.       Tourism in India has grown substantially over the last three decades
10.   Foreign tourist’s arrivals in the country witnessed an increase of 23.5 per cent during the year 2004
11.   As against the year 2003, thus contributing Rs 21,828 crore of foreign exchange.
12.   Over 2.6 million foreign tourists visit India every year.
13.   More than 15 million people are
14.   Directly engaged in the tourism industry.
15.   Tourism also promotes national integration, provides support to local handicrafts and cultural pursuits.
16.   Foreign tourists visit India for heritage tourism, eco-tourism, adventure tourism, cultural tourism, medical tourism and business tourism.
17.   Rajasthan, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and temple towns of south India are important destinations of foreign tourists in India.
18.   There is vast potential of tourism development in the north-eastern states and the interior parts of Himalayas,

19.   But due to strategic reasons these have not been encouraged so far.

No comments:

Post a Comment