CBSE Class 10 Social Science Lifelines of National Economy Notes Set 04

These CBSE Class 10 Geography notes for Chapter 7 Lifelines of National Economy cover roadways (their classification and the Golden Quadrilateral), railways and the factors shaping their distribution, pipelines, waterways and India's major sea ports. Note: per the current CBSE syllabus, only map-pointing questions from this chapter are evaluated in the board exam; the theory is assessed only internally.

Means of Transport: An Overview

Transport in India is organised by land (roadways, railways, pipelines), water (inland and overseas waterways) and air (domestic and international airways, run by public and private operators).

Roadways

India has one of the world's largest road networks, covering over 6.4 million km, and roadways have overtaken railways in importance for several reasons: roads are easier and cheaper to build and maintain than railways; they can be built through more twisting, uneven terrain, including steep mountain slopes (such as the Himalayas); they are cost-effective for moving small numbers of people or goods over short distances; they offer door-to-door service, cutting the cost of loading and unloading; they act as feeders connecting railway stations, airports and seaports to other areas; they are simple, affordable and available 24 hours a day; agricultural expansion depends on road access; and good roads make it easier to move perishable goods (milk, vegetables) between places, boosting productivity and giving farmers access to essential technical and market information.

Challenges facing Indian roads: many roads are in poor condition, becoming muddy in the rainy season; city roads are often severely congested, with networks unable to keep pace with traffic demand; and most highways lack facilities such as phone booths, emergency medical services and police posts.

Classification of Roads (by carrying capacity)

India's roads fall into six categories: Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways, National Highways, State Highways, District Roads, Other Roads, and Border Roads.

Golden Quadrilateral Super Highways: launched in 2000, this major project links Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai with six-lane super highways, and also includes the North-South Corridor (Srinagar to Kanniyakumari) and the East-West Corridor (Silchar to Porbandar). Its main goal is to reduce travel time and distance between India's major metropolitan cities, under the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

National Highways: connect the country's most remote areas, built and maintained by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). The historic Sher Shah Suri Marg (Grand Trunk Road), between Delhi and Amritsar, is designated National Highway No. 1.

State Highways: connect a state capital to various district headquarters, built and maintained by the State Public Works Department (PWD) in each state/UT.

District Roads: link district headquarters to other places within the district, maintained by the Zila Parishad.

Other Roads: rural roads connecting villages to towns, boosted by the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which aims to connect every village to a major town via an all-season, motorable road. PMGSY, a centrally sponsored scheme, was introduced in 2000 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, aiming to connect villages of 1,000+ population by 2003 (500+ in hill, tribal and desert areas by 2007; 250+ in such areas by a later target), with the scheme extended up to September 2022.

Border Roads: built and maintained by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a government project founded in 1960 to construct strategic highways in the northern and north-eastern regions, improving access to difficult terrain and supporting local economic growth. The BRO built the Atal Tunnel (9.02 km), the world's longest highway tunnel at the time, connecting Manali to the Lahaul-Spiti valley year-round (the valley was previously cut off for about 6 months a year due to heavy snowfall); built at an altitude of about 3,000 metres above mean sea level in the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas, to modern engineering standards.

Roads can also be classed by construction material: metalled roads (made of cement, concrete or bitumen; usable in all weather) and unmetalled roads (made of soil; unusable in the rainy season). India's expressways, its highest grade of road, totalled about 2,049.1 km as of January 2022; unlike ordinary National Highways, expressways are controlled-access, with entry and exit only via dedicated ramps.

Railways

Railways are India's primary mode of goods and passenger transport. They enable business travel, sightseeing and pilgrimage, and move goods over long distances; for over 150 years, they have acted as a major integrating force, binding the country's economic life together and accelerating industrial and agricultural growth. The Indian Railways is the country's largest public-sector organisation. The first train in India ran from Mumbai to Thane in 1853, covering 34 km. The Indian Railway system is organised into 16 zones.

Factors Shaping the Distribution of Railways

Physiographic factors: the many wide rivers of the northern plains required extensive bridge-building; railway tracks in the hilly peninsular region had to be built through low slopes, gaps and tunnels; the Himalayan mountain regions, with their high relief, sparse population and limited economic activity, remain largely unsuitable for railways; laying tracks was difficult across the desert of western Rajasthan, the wetlands of Gujarat, and the forested tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand; and crossing the Sahyadri (Western Ghats) was only possible through gaps or tunnels.

Economic factors: the northern plains, with their large flat area, dense population and rich agricultural resources, offered the best conditions for railway development. The Konkan Railway, along India's west coast, has recently improved passenger and goods movement in this economically important region, though it has faced problems such as track subsidence and landslides in places. Highly industrialised areas also attract railway development.

Administrative factors: state funding is important to railway development, and states with more flexible regulations tend to see faster railway growth.

The Indian Railway network runs on multiple gauges across about 68,442 route km: Broad Gauge (1.676 m), with 63,491 route km (1,17,560 km total track); Metre Gauge (1.000 m), with 3,200 route km (3,775 km total track); and Narrow Gauge (0.762 and 0.610 m), with 1,751 route km (1,901 km total track).

Problems of Indian Railways

Despite playing a larger role in the national economy than all other transport modes combined, railways face persistent challenges: large numbers of ticketless travellers; ongoing theft and damage to railway property; damage caused by passengers stopping trains or pulling the emergency chain unnecessarily, delaying scheduled departures; and frequent accidents causing serious harm. (A track gauge is the distance between a railway track's two rails; all vehicles on a network must have compatible wheelsets, and differing gauges worldwide often limit cross-network operation.)

Pipelines

Pipeline transport is a relatively new addition to India's transport system. Once used mainly to supply water to cities and industry, pipelines now carry crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas from oilfields and gas fields to refineries, chemical plants and large thermal power stations; solids, once converted into a fluid form, can also be moved this way.

Advantages of pipelines: they avoid transit delays and transport losses, benefiting many fertiliser plants and thermal power stations supplied by gas pipelines; though the initial cost of laying pipelines is high, running costs are very low; they maintain a continuous supply of gas and oil; and they can be laid through difficult terrain, including under the sea — the far-inland locations of refineries such as Barauni, Mathura and Panipat were only made feasible by pipelines.

India has three major pipeline transport networks: (1) from the oilfields of upper Assam to Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), via Guwahati, Barauni and Allahabad, with branches from Barauni to Haldia (via Rajbandh), Rajbandh to Maurigram, and Guwahati to Siliguri; (2) from Salaya (Gujarat) to Jalandhar (Punjab), via Viramgam, Mathura, Delhi and Sonipat, with branches to Koyali (near Vadodara) and elsewhere; and (3) a gas pipeline from Hazira (Gujarat) to Jagdishpur (Uttar Pradesh), via Vijaipur (Madhya Pradesh), with branches to Kota (Rajasthan), Shahjahanpur, Babrala and other points in Uttar Pradesh. Other important pipelines include Mumbai High-Ankleshwar-Koyali (210 km), the Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline (1,269 km), and the Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline (1,331 km).

Waterways

India has been a seafaring country since ancient times, with its sailors spreading Indian commerce and culture far and wide. Waterways are the cheapest mode of transport, best suited to moving heavy, bulky goods, and are low-cost, fuel-efficient and eco-friendly.

India's inland navigation waterways total 14,500 km, though only 5,685 km are navigable by mechanised vessels. The government has designated five National Waterways:

Other inland waterways carrying significant traffic include the Mandavi, Zuari and Cumbarjua rivers, and the Sunderbans, the Barak river, and the backwaters of Kerala.

Major Sea Ports

India's overseas trade moves through coastal ports: about 95% of trade volume (68% of trade value) is carried by sea. India's 7,516.6 km coastline hosts 12 major and about 200 notified non-major (minor/ intermediate) ports, with roughly 95% of international trade passing through the major ports. Ports may be natural or man-made.

Lagoon: a body of water separated from larger water bodies by a natural barrier, such as a sandbar, barrier reef or coral reef. Natural harbour: a coastal location where ships can anchor, sheltered from storms (which may be natural or artificial). Port: a location where ships and boats dock to load and unload passengers and goods — always an artificial structure.

Kandla Port: in Kutch, the first port built right after Independence, to ease the burden on Mumbai port following the loss of Karachi to Pakistan at Partition. Also known as Deendayal Port, it is a tidal port, handling exports and imports for the productive agricultural and industrial belts of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Mumbai Port: India's largest port, by both size and traffic, located on the western coast in a natural harbour.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port: designed to relieve congestion at Mumbai port and serve as a regional hub port.