Lifelines of National Economy
Transport and roadways
Explain the importance of roads and classify India's roads.
Why transport matters. Things are made in one place and needed in another. Goods do not walk to us; traders bring them, using transport. So a country grows fast only if it can both make goods and move them well. Transport, communication and trade depend on each other: together they are the lifelines of the economy. Fast transport has turned the world into one 'large village'.
Roads: the second largest network in the world. India has about 62.16 lakh km of roads (2020-21). Roads came before railways in India, and they still have advantages:
- they are cheaper to build than railway lines;
- they can cross broken, uneven land;
- they can climb steep slopes, even in the Himalayas;
- they are cheaper for a few people or small loads over short distances;
- they give door-to-door service, so less loading and unloading;
- they feed other transport: they link railway stations, airports and sea ports.
Six kinds of road: one journey. Picture a trip from a village to a big city:
- Rural roads take you from the village to the nearest town. The Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana aims to link every village to a major town by a road usable in all seasons.
- District roads link places in the district to the district headquarters.
- State Highways link the district headquarters to the state capital.
- National Highways link the far ends of the country; many run north-south and east-west.
- Golden Quadrilateral super highways: six lanes joining Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. With them come the North-South corridor (Srinagar to Kanniyakumari) and the East-West corridor (Silchar to Porbandar). The aim: less time and distance between the big cities. Built by the NHAI.
- Border roads: see below.
Border roads. The Border Roads Organisation, set up in 1960, builds and keeps up roads along India's northern and north-eastern borders. They matter for the country's security, and they make hard-to-reach areas easier to reach and help them grow. It built the Atal Tunnel (9.02 km) in the Pir Panjal range, the world's longest highway tunnel. Before it, the Lahul-Spiti valley was cut off by snow for about 6 months a year. Now it is linked to Manali all year round.
Metalled and unmetalled. Metalled roads are made of cement, concrete or bitumen, so they work in all weather. Unmetalled (kachcha) roads cannot be used in the rainy season.
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