Talk about India, from India with you

Good morning/Good afternoon/Good evening my friends, wherever you are! This is 11:00 am. 15^th August, 2014, Friday in India. Today is the Independence Day of India! Time is running like water! Remember, this is the 2^nd Birthday of this blog! It has started journey from 2012, on the same day! I don’t know, how much you like to read my blog; but believe me, I really enjoy and love to talk with you all. For some personal reasons, I had to stop for last few months; but I promise you to continue from today. Many of you missed the features ‘Destination India’ and ‘Festivals of India’ and requested to continue! Here is a good news for you – I definitely continue the features and bonus is that, from now, you can know the details about how to reach to your favorite destination! Isn't it interesting? Not only that, from now, when I share Festivals, the special recipe for the occasion will be shared in my food blog ‘From the Kitchen of an Indian Homemaker’. Not enough?? Then, there is new Birthday Giveaway in the page, starting from today! So cheer up and join me for fun…….

Before I start ‘Destination India’ with whereabouts of transportation; let’s go for some history and details of Indian Transportation! Here I go…….. 

A well known and co-ordinate system of transport plays an important role in the sustained economic growth of a country. The present transport system of India comprises several modes of transport including rail, road, coastal shipping, air transport, etc. Transportation in India has recorded a substantial growth over the years both in spread of network and in output of the system. The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways is responsible for the formation and implementation of policies and programmes for the development of various modes of transport save the railways and the civil aviation. 

Railways:

Indian Railways is one of the largest railways under single management. It carries some 17 million passengers and 2 million tonnes of freight a day in year 2007 and is one of the world’s largest employers. The railways play a leading role in carrying passengers and cargo across India's vast territory. However, most of its major corridors have capacity constraint requiring capacity enhancement plans.

The network is divided into 16 zones. Divisions are basic operating units. The 16 zones are their respective headquarters are given below.    

Zonal Railways	Headquarters
Central	Mumbai CST
Eastern	Kolkata
Northern	New Delhi
Northern-Eastern	Gorakhpur
North-East Frontier	Maligaon (Guwahati)
Southern	Chennai
South Central	Secunderabad
South-Eastern	Kolkata
Western	Church Gate, Mumbai
East Central Railway	Hajipur
East Coast Railway	Bhubaneshwar
North Central Railway	Allahabad
North Western Railway	Jaipur
South-East Central Railway	Bilaspur
South-Western Railway	Hubli
West Central Railway	Jabalpur

Roads:

Roads are the dominant mode of transportation in India today. They carry almost 90 percent of the country’s passenger traffic and 65 percent of its freight. The density of India’s highway network -- at 0.66 km of highway per square kilometer of land – is similar to that of the United States (0.65) and much greater than China's (0.16) or Brazil's (0.20). India has one of the largest road networks in the world, aggregating to about 33 lakh kilometers at present. Though the National Highways, which is the responsibility of Central Government, has length of roads, carries over 40 percent of the total traffic across the length and breadth of the country. 

National Highways/Expressways	65,590 km
State Highways	1,28,000 km
Major and other Disctric Roads	4,70,000 km
Rural Roads	26,50,000 km

The National Highways have further been classified depending upon the carriageway width of the Highway. Generally, a lane has a width of 3.75 m in case of single lane and 3.5 per lane in case of multilane National Highways.

Ports:

India has 12 major and 187 minor and intermediate ports along its more than 7500 km long coastline. These ports serve the country’s growing foreign trade in petroleum products, iron ore, and coal, as well as the increasing movement of containers. Inland water transportation remains largely undeveloped despite India's 14,000 kilometers of navigable rivers and canals.

Aviation:                              

India has 125 airports, including 11 international airports. Indian airports handled 96 million passengers and 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in year 2006-2007, an increase of 31.4% for passenger and 10.6% for cargo traffic over previous year. The dramatic increase in air traffic for both passengers and cargo in recent years has placed a heavy strain on the country's major airports.

Passenger traffic is projected to cross 100 million and cargo to cross 3.3 million tonnes by year 2010.

Transport infrastructure in India is better developed in the southern and southwestern parts of the country.

That’s all for today! I forgot to tell that, from today, you can join me in this blog on Monday and Friday; and also follow me in the food blog on Wednesday and Friday. So, will meet you again on Monday. Till then…good bye…..take care of your family and yourself. Namaskar.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY