Geography: 7. Life Lien Of National Economy

Earlier, trade and transport were restricted only to certain areas. The two factors were responsible for the expansion of trade and transport are-

• Trade and commerce expanded due to the development of science and technology.

• The development of the communication system also led to the expansion of trade and transport. With the efficient transport system, the world has now become a large village and transport system developed due to the proper communication system.

Trade, transport and communication are dependent on each other.

Central Public Works Department (CPWD) laid down the primary road systems and also maintains it. National Highways connects extreme parts of the country. Many major national highways run in North-South and East-West directions. For example – Sher Shah Suri Marg is the National Highway No. 1 between Delhi and Amritsar.

National Highways connects extreme parts of the country. Central Public Works Department (CPWD) laid down the primary road systems and also maintains it. Many major national highways run in North-South and East-West directions. The National Highway No 7 is considered to be the longest and the two end cities it joins are the Varanasi and Kanyakumari via Jabalpur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Madurai which is about 2,369 km.

State highways are those roads which connect state capital with different district headquarters. State Public Works Department (PWD) constructs and maintains the state Highways in both state and Union territories. They are responsible to do all the public works including day to day maintenance of the infrastructure of the city. They plan, design, construct and maintain all the public works.

There are different types of roads such as National Highways, State Highways, Golden Quadrilateral, Super Highways, District Roads, Border Roads and Other Roads. These other roads are rural roads which connect rural areas and villages with towns.

• The Pradhan Mantri Grameen SadakYojna is the driving force behind the maintenance of these roads.

• This Yojna is important because it provides such provisions so that every village in the country is connected to the town in the country.

• It should also have all season motorable roads.

• Their aim is to provide good weather road connectivity to unconnected villages.

Border roads are those roads which are in the bordering areas of the country. The aim is to provide security as this road could be used to carry arms and army. The border roads are helpful in the economic development of the far off areas of the country due to the following reasons –

• The Border Roads Organisation was established in 1960, constructs and maintains roads in the bordering areas of the country.

• It is a government of India undertaking which is created to construct roads of strategic importance in the northern and northeastern borders.

• These roads provide easy access to the areas of difficult terrain. This led to the economic development of the far off areas of the country.

The Railways in India is an important mode of transportation for passengers as well for freight in India. It makes activities like business, sightseeing, pilgrimage, and transportation of goods to other places easier. It has been more than 150 years that Indian Railways have served us. Railways help for the economic, agricultural and industrial development of the country. The Indian railways have network 7,031 stations.

The factors responsible for the dense networks of railways in the Gangetic plains are as follows-

• The northern plains of India are appropriate for the growth of the railways as these areas have vast areas for the construction of the railways.

• It has a high population density.

• Plenty of agricultural resources are available.

However, bridges have to be constructed due to a large number of rivers in such areas. These are constructed across the wide beds which posed as the drawback.

Refinery is a place where raw materials are converted into the valuable substance by removing all the impurities like crude oil is converted into gasoline or petroleum products at the oil refinery.

• Uttar Pradesh – Mathura refinery, Indian Oil Corporation Limited. Located in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh is the sixth refinery of Indian Oil. It processes low sulphur crude from Bombay High and high sulphur crude from the Middle East. It also imported low sulphur crude from Nigeria.

• Bihar – Barauni refinery, Indian Oil Corporation Limited. It was built in collaboration with the Soviet Union in the Bihar state of India.

• Haryana – Panipat Refinery, Indian Oil Corporation Limited. It was set up in 1998 in the Baholi village of Panipat, Haryana. It is South East Asia’s largest integrated petrochemicals plants.

The Railways in India is an important mode of transportation for passengers as well for freight in India. It makes activities like business, sightseeing, pilgrimage, and transportation of goods to other places easier. It has been more than 150 years that Indian Railways have served us. Railways help for the economic, agricultural and industrial development of the country. The Indian railways have network 7,031 stations. The various factors that cause heavy damage to the railways are as follows:

• It is difficult to build railways in the hilly terrains of the peninsular regions. Through low hills, gaps or tunnels, the railway tracts are laid down.

• Due to high relief, scattered population and lack of economic opportunities, it poses a problem to construct railways in the Himalayan Mountainous region. These factors cause heavy damage to the railways.

• It becomes difficult to construct the railway tracts on the sandy plain of western Rajasthan, swamps of Gujarat, forested tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand.

• People travel in train without tickets which is a problem for the railways.

• Railway properties are damaged by the people and theftis a common problem.

• Also, people pull the chain and try to stop the train unnecessarily.

All thus causes heavy damage to the railways.

(a) A tidal port on the west coast – Kandla

After independence to facilitate volume of trade on the Mumbai port, Kandla Port in Kuchchh was developed. It serves as the easy handling of exports and imports of highly productive granary and industrial belt stretching across the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

(b) A port exporting iron ore on the west coast – Marmagaon Port (Goa)

It is the premier iron ore exporting of the country. 50% of India’s iron ore export is done from here.

(c) A port at the entrance of a lagoon, in the south-west of India – Kochi (Kerala)

Located in Kerala, It is a natural harbour in the Vembanad lake.

(d) An inland riverine port – Kolkata

Inland riverine port in Kolkata serves a large and rich hinterland of Ganga-Brahmaputra basin.

(e) The oldest artificial port - Chennai

In terms of the volume of trade and cargo, it is next after Mumbai.

The term trade is referred to the exchange of goods among the people, states and countries and exchanges take place in the markets. Thus, trade between the two countries is called International trade. Such trade takes place through sea, air or land routes. Development of international trade will only lead to the economic prosperity of the country. Export and import are the components of trade and there is no country that could think of economic development without international trade.

Ores and minerals and gems and jewellery are two major items of export. Pearls and precious stones and inorganic chemicals are two items of import to India.

A. The easternmost city of the East-West Corridor – Silchar (Assam)

B. NH from Varanasi to Kanyakumari - The National Highway No 7 joins Varanasi and Kanyakumari via Jabalpur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Madurai.

C1. Two capital cities of the south – Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka

C2. The Golden Quadrilateral Passes through – Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai-Delhi