Grade 10

Subject- Geography
Lifelines of Indian economy
Means of transport-

A. Roadways
1. How it is better than other modes of transport
 It helped to improve the accessibility in these areas of difficult terrain and have helped in the
economic development of the area
 Construction cost of roads is much lower than that of railway lines
 Roads can traverse comparatively more dissected and undulating topography
 Roads can negotiate higher gradients of slopes and as such can traverse mountains such as the
Himalayas
 It also provides door to door to service, thus loading and unloading is much lower
 Road transport is economical in transportation of few persons and relatively smaller amount of
goods over short distances
 Road transport is also used as feeder to other modes of transport such as they provide a link
between railway stations, air, sea ports.

2. Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways

 Road linking – Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai

 Delhi will be linked by six superhighways
 North-South corridor- between Srinagar and Kanyakumari
 East-West corridor – between Silcher and Porbander
 To reduce time and distance between the mega cities of India
 Implemented by National Highway authority of India(NHAI)

3. National Highway

 Links extreme parts of the country

 Primary road system and laid and maintained by the Central Public Works Department(CPWD)
 Sher Shah Suri Marg is called National Highway No.1 between Delhi and Amritsar
4. State Highway

Mrs. Meera Jayaraj

  Links state capital with different district headquarters
 Maintained by State Public Works Department(SPWD)
5. District roads

 Connects district headquarters with other places of the district

 Maintained by Zilla Parishad

6. Rural roads
 Connects rural areas and villages with towns
 These roads receives special impetus under Pradhana Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojna
 Special provision are made so that every village in the country is linked to a major town in the
country by an all season motorable road
7. Border roads
 Border Roads Organisation a Government of India undertaking constructs and maintains roads
in the bordering areas of the country
 The organisation was established by 1960 for the development of the roads of strategic
importance in the northern and north-eastern borders

8. Problems
 Road network is still inadequate with respect to the volume of passengers and traffic
 Half of the roads are unmetalled
 National Highways are also inadequate
 Roadways are highly congested in cities
 The length of road per 100 sq km of area is known as density of roads
 Distribution of roads is not uniform in the country
 Density of roads varies from 10 km in J&K to 375 km in Kerala with national average of 75
kmBridges and culverts are old and narrow

B. Railways
1. Importance
 Principal mode of transport – freight, passengers, business, sightseeing, pilgrimage
 A great integrating force, binds economically and accelerates the development of the industry
and agriculture.
 A network of 7,031 stations spread over a route length of 63,221km. With a fleet of 7817
locomotives, 5321 passenger service vehicles, 4904 other coach vehicles and 228, 170 wagons a
son 31 March 2004
 Largest public sector undertaking

Mrs. Meera Jayaraj

 2. Factors influencing distribution pattern

 Physiographic
 Economic,
 administrative factors
 Example – The northern plains have most favourable conditions like vast level land, high
population density and rich agricultural resources but large number of rivers posed a
problem
 Himalayan mountainous region were unfavourable because of high terrain, sparse
population, lack of economic opportunities.
 Another place with unfavourable circumstanaces were sandy plains of Rajasthan, swamps
of Gujarat, forested tracks of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand

3. Problems
Though the development of Konkan railway facilitated the movement of passengers and goods
in this most important economic region but it also faces problems such as sinking of track and
landslides
Many passengers travel without tickets
Thefts and damaging of railway property
People stop the trains and pull the chain unnecessarily

C. Pipelines
1. Features

 Used to transport petroleum products, crude oil and natural gas from oil and natural gas fields
to refineries, fertilizer factories and big thermal power plants
 Solids can also be transported through pipeline by converting it into slurry
 Initial cost of laying is costly but subsequent running costs are minimal
 Rules out trans shipment losses or delays.

2. Important pipelines
 From upper Assam to Kanpur, via Guwahati, Barauni, Allahabad. It has branches from Barauni to
haldia, via Rajbandh, Rajbandh to Maurigram and Guwahati to Siliguri
 From Salaya in Guajarat to Jalandhar via Viramgarh, Mathura, Delhi and Sonipat. It branches to
connect Koyali , Chakshu and other places.
 Hazira to Jagdishpur in UP via Vijaipur in Madhya Pradesh. It has branches to Kota(Rajasthan),
Shahjahanpur, Babrala and other places in UP

Mrs. Meera Jayaraj

D. Waterways

1. Importance
 Cheapest means
 Most suitable to carry heavy and bulky goods
 Fuel efficient and environmental friendly.
 Inland navigation of 14,500kms. Out of these 3700kms are navigable by mechanised boats

2. National waterways
NW. No.1 - The Ganga river between Allahabad and Haldia (1620 km)

NW.No.2 - The Brahmaputra river between Sadiya and Dhubri (891 km)

NW. No. 3 - The west coast canal in Kerala (Kottapurma-Komman, Udyogmandal and Champakkara
canals – 205 km)

3. Sea Ports
 12 major seaports and 181 medium seaports
 Handles 95 percent of India’s foreign trade
Seaport Location Importance
Kandla – Kutchh  First port to be developed
after independence to
ease the volume of trade
from Mumbai port
 Tidal port
 Caters to the convenient
handling of highly
productive granary and
industrial belt stretching
across J&K, Himachal
Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana,
Rajasthan and Gujarat
Mumbai Maharashtra Biggest port with a spacious
natural and well-sheltered
harbour
Jawaharlal Nehru port Maharashtra was planned to decongest the
Mumbai port and to serve as
hub port for this region
Marmagao port Goa Premier iron ore exporting

Mrs. Meera Jayaraj

 port of the country. Accounts
for 50% of iron ore export
New Manglore port Karnataka – export of iron ore from
Kudremukh mines
Kochi Kerala Located at the entrance of a
lagoon with a natural harbour
Tuticorin Tamil Nadu Natural harbour and rich
hinterland. Huge varieties of
cargo to Sri Lanka, Maldives
Chennai Tamil Nadu One of the oldest artificial
port. It ranks next to Mumbai
port in terms of volume of
cargo and trade
Vishakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh Deepest landlocked and well
protected port. Originally
conceived as an outlet for iron
ore exports
Paradip Orissa export of iron ore
Kolkata West Bengal Inland riverine port. This
serves as very large and rich
hinterland of Ganga-
Brahmaputra basin. Being a
tidal port, it requires constant
dredging of Hoogly.
Haldia West Bengal Developed as a subsidiary to
relieve growing pressure on
the Kolkata port

E. Airports
 Fastest and most comfortable and prestigious mode of transport
 Cover very difficult terrains like mountains, dreary deserts, dense forests and also long oceanic
stretches with great ease
 Air transport was nationalised in 1953
 Domestic services – Indian airlines, Alliance air, private scheduled airlines and non-scheduled
airlines.
 International – Air India
 Pawanhans Helicopters provides helicopter services to Oil and Natural Gas services (ONGC) in tis
off shore operations, to inaccessible areas and difficult terrains like north-eastern states, interior
parts of J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal
 Indian Airlines have extended their services to South and South-east Asia and the Middle East
F. Communication - Personal and mass communication includes – television, radio, press, films, etc.
Mrs. Meera Jayaraj
 1. Postal
Indian Postal network is the largest in the world
Handles parcels as well as personal writteen communications
First class mails – cards and envelopes – are airlifted between stations covering both land and
air
Second class mail – book packets, registered newspaper, periodicals – are cariied by surface
mails, covering land and water
To facilitate quick deleivery, six mail channels have been introduced recently – Rajasthan
channel, metro channel, Green channel, Business channel, Bulk channel, periodical channel
2. Telecom
India has a largest telecom networks in Asia
STD (subscriber trunk dialling) has been provided to every village 24 hours
There is uniform charges of STD rates
It has been made possible by integrating the development in space technology with
communication technology

3. Mass Communication

 Radio, television, magazines, newspaper, books, films

 National organisation – All India Radio (Akashwani), Doordarshan (television)
 Newspaper published in over 100 languages
 Largest number of newspaper in Hindi, followed by English, Urdu
 India is largest producer of feature films . The Central Board of Film Certification is the national
authority to certify Indian and foreign films

G. International Trade
 The exchange of goods among people, states and countries is referred to as trade – it takes place in the
market
 Local trade- Between villages cities, towns
 State trade – Between States
 International trade – Between countries
 Exports includes which has increased – agriculture and allied products (2.53 %), ores and
minerals (9.12%), gems and jewellery (26.75%), chemicals and allied products (24.45%),
engineering goods (35%) and petroleum products(86.12%)
 Imports include – Petroleum and its allied products ( 41.87%), pearls and precious stones
(29.26%), inorganic chemicals (29.39%), coal, coke, and briquettes (94.17%), machinery
(12.56%). Bulk imports as groups has increased like fertilizers, cereals, edible oils,
newsprint.

Mrs. Meera Jayaraj

  Exchange of commodities and goods have been superseded by exchange of information and
knowledge.
H. Tourism
 Foreign tourists’ arrivals have increased by 23.5% during 2004, thus contributing Rs 21,828 crore
of foreign exchangeTourism promotes national integration, provides support to local handicrafts
and cultural pursuits.
 It helps in the development of international understanding about our culture and heritage.
 Rajasthan, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and temple towns of South India are favorite among the
tourists
 There is possibility of tourism in north-eastern states and interior parts of Himalayas but due to
strategic reasons these have not been encouraged

Mrs. Meera Jayaraj