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Lifelines of National Economy

Transportation and communication are the lifelines of National economy.

Transportation:

• Country’s development ,depends on ,production of ,goods ,as well as, their ,transportation ,too.
• Peoples ,who, facilites, such transportation, are known, as ,traders. Traders ,help in, reaching ,the, goods, to the, consumer.
• Technological, improvements ,enabled us, to develop, Land, Water ,and ,Air ways, so as ,to connect, world, for trade, and, transport.
• Land transport is done by Roadways, Railways or Pipelines.
• Water Transport can be Inland or Overseas using water as transportation media.
• Air transport can be done by domestic and International airways. Sending or receiving information is called communication. Technologies such  as  Television, Telecommunication, Radio, Press, Films etc helps to communicate within no time.

Trade:

• Exchange of goods among peoples, states or countries is known as trade.
• Traders are peoples who do such exchanges with the help of transport and communication.

Current Scenario

• Today, railways, waterways, airways, Newspapers, radio, television, Cinema Internet ,and Trade, are ,helping ,in socio-economic ,progress, of India.
• Still there is a need of , dense and efficient network of transport and communication for local national and global trade.

Transportation By Roadways

• Introduction
• India has about 2.3 million km of road network which is Largest in the World.
• Roadways are comparatively easier to build and maintain than railways.
• Importance:
• Construction Cost of roads are cheaper than railways.
• Roads can be constructed in different topography such as irregular surfaces, Unconnected Regions, higher slopes such as mountains.
• It is economical in transporting few people or small amount of good over short distances.
• Since it provide door-to-door service hence the cost of loading and unloading is much lower.
• It act as feeder to other modes of transport as they link Railway Stations, airports and seaports.
• Road Density
• The length of road per 100 sq. km of area signifies density of roads.
• It is 10.04 km in Jammu and Kashmir, 532.27 Km in Uttar Pradesh. national average of road density is 125.02 Km.
• Challenges in Road Transportation
• road network is inadequate to fulfil demand of traffic.
• Nearly half of the roads are unmetalled hence get damaged in rainy season.
• Roadways are highly congested in cities.
• Most of the bridges and culverts are old and narrow.

Classification of Roadways

Classification based on Capacity i.e. number of traffic lanes

• Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways
• National Highways
• State Highways
• District Roads
• Other Roads
• Rural Roads
• Border Roads

Classification on the basis of type of material

• Metalled Roads
• Unmetalled Roads

Transportation By Railways

 

• Importance:

 

• Railways are primary means of bulk transport of goods and passengers in India. It also helps in activities like business, sightseeing i.e. visiting tourist places, pilgrimage and transport of goods over longer distances.
• Railways are helpful in economic development of country as it accelerate the development of industry and agriculture
• Factors on which Distribution of Railways depends
• Mainly distribution of railway network depends on physiographic, economic and administrative factors.
• Northern Plains: Presence of vast level land, high population density and rich agricultural resources make Northern plains favourable for growth of railway network.
• Rivers:It is not easy to construct bridges and spread railway network on large number of rivers having wide beds.
• Peninsular Regions: In hilly terrains of peninsular region, railway tracks are constructed through low hills, gaps, or tunnels.
• Himalayan mountains: Himalayan mountainous regions also are unfavourable, due to tall areas, very short population and therefore lack of economic opportunities.
• Sandy plains, swamps and forested tracts: Presence of sandy plain of western Rajasthan, swamps of Gujarat, forested tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand limit the spreading of railway network.
• Sahyadri Hills: Sahyadri could only be crossed through gaps or passes.
• West Coast: Konkan railway is developed connected most important economic regions of India.
• Other Problem: There are other problems too such as Landslides, sinking of railway tracks, damaging railway property, chain pulling and stopping of trains.

Transportation by Pipelines

• Earlier pipelines were used to transport water to cities and industries. Today, we are using pipelines for transporting crude oil, petroleum products, natural gas and solid products in the form of slurry, from its source to destination such as refineries, fertilizer factories, thermal power plants.
• Refineries such as Barauni, Mathura, Panipat and gas based fertiliser plants are entirely dependent on pipelines for their working.
• Establishing the pipeline network require only one time investment.
• Pipeline network need minimum maintenance hence maintenance cost is very low. Similarly, these also saves from shipping losses and delays.

Transportation by Waterways

• Waterways provide cheaper means for transporting bulky & heavy goods also these are fuel-efficient and Environment friendly means of transport. Indians, are ,travelling ,longer, and shorter, distances ,in sea ,and ,spreading ,Indian culture, and, trade.
• In India, inland navigation , waterways ,are ,14,500 km , long ,out of, which only, 5685 km ,can be ,travelled by mechanised vehicles.

Transportation by Airways

Importance

• Today  air travel is the fastest, most comfortable and prestigious mode of transport. It enable us access to any difficult terrain such as mountains, deserts, forests and also long oceanic distances.
• It is important especially in case of north-eastern parts of India, where there are long rivers, isolated regions, dense forests and continuous flooding conditions.

Service Providers

• In 1953, air transport was nationalised. Today Indian Airlines, Alliance Air and other domestic air services are providing airway transportation facilities.
• Air India is providing transportation between countries.
• Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. enable Oil and Natural gas to transport its products to remote, inaccessible areas and difficult terrains especially Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Network

• Indian Airlines primarily established its network in South and South-East Asia and Middle East countries.

Limitations

• This type of transportation is not in the reach of common peoples. Only in North-Eastern parts some provisions are made to extend this service to common people.

Communication

• Exchange of information is called communication. With rapid development, long distance communication is possible without physical movement of sender or receiver.
• Communication can be Personal Communication or Mass communication. Person to person communication is called Personal communication, which is done by using postal network or telecommunication facilities. Conveying information to number of people at once is called Mass communication. It can be done by using radio, television, newspapers, films etc.

Personal Communication

 

• Communication by Post:

 

• Indian postal network is largest in the world. It facilitate movement of parcels, personal written communication.
• First-Class Mail include cards and envelopes which are transferred to destination with the help of air and land transport.
• Second-Class Mail include book packets, registered newspapers and periodicals which are carried to the destination by land and water transport.
• Channels:Recently to facilitate quick delivery of mails in India, six channels are developed these are Rajdhani Channel, Metro Channel, Green Channel, Business Channel, Bulk mail Channel and Periodical Channel.

• Telecommunication:

• India’s Telecom Network is one of the largest network in Asia. Subscriber Trunk Dialing (i.e. STD) telephone facility is spread into urban areas as well as two-thirds of villages. To improve the flow of information Indian Government is providing 24 hours STD facility that too with Uniform Rates in all over India. With the improvement in space technology and communication technology all this is made possible.

Mass Communication:

• With the help of means such as radio, television, newspapers, books, magazines, & films . Mass communication provide entertainment and also help in creating awareness.
• Radio: All India Radio i.e. Akashwani broadcast programmes in Different Languages for various Categories of people.
• Television: Doordarshan, is one of the greatest terrestrial network in the world. It broadcast programs in different languages, of different types and for different age groups of people.
• Newspapers and Periodicals: Newspapers are published daily in about 100 Languages. Largest number of newspapers are published in Hindi, English and Urdu. Periodicals are published after certain period such as Weekly, Monthly etc.  
• Film: India is largest producer of feature films including short films, video feature films and video short films. Indian films and Foreign films should be certified by Central Board of Film Certification before publishing in India.