1. Roads
    1. Width of National highways
    2. Org 4 highway construction
    3. Where does NHDP get money?
    4. BRO
    5. Central Road Fund
    6. Bharat Nirman
      1. Rural Housing
      2. Roads
      3. Electrification
      4. Telephone Connectivity
      5. Drinking Water
      6. Irrigation.
    7. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
    8. 12th FYP: Road Transport
    9. Electronic Toll Collection (ETC)
    10. NATRIP
    11. SARDP-NE
  2. Shipping
    1. Major ports: East vs West
    2. National Automatic Identification System (AIS)
    3. Transchart
    4. Vallarpadam
    5. Sethusamudram project
    6. Adam’s Bridge / Ram Sethu
    7. Maritime agenda 2020
    8. Shipping: Challenges
    9. Inland Water transport authority of India
    10. Kaladan Multimodal Transport Project
    11. Indian waterways: challenges
    12. 12th FYP: Inland Water Transport
  3. Aviation
    1. Chicago convention
    2. ICAO
    3. Airlines in India
    4. DGCA
    5. Bureau of civil aviation security
    6. Pilot Training
    7. AAI
    8. FANS
    9. GAGAN
    10. Air India
    11. Pawan Hans Helicopter ltd
    12. Aviation: recent Developments
    13. Aviation Challenges:
    14. Greenfield and Brownfield
    15. 12th FYP: Aviation
  4. Mock Questions

Roads

Name

Responsibility of

Connect

National Highways Central Government State capitals
State highways State Government State Capital to District HQ
district roads Zila Parishad District HQ to tehsil and Blocks
village roads Gram Panchayat Villages to neighboring towns
  • in terms of total road length (bigger to smaller): Other  roads >> State highways >> National highways / expressways
  • within national highways, in terms of total road length: (bigger to smaller)= Double lane >>(4/6/8 lane) >>Single lane
  • National highways comprises only 2.0 per cent of the road network but carry 40 per cent of the road-based traffic.

Width of National highways

  • in case of single lane highway: 3.75 meter
  • in case of multilane highway: 3.5 meter per lane.

Org 4 highway construction

done by three organizations

  1. National highways authority of India (NHAI)
  2. State Public Works Department (PWD)
  3. Border roads Organization (BRO)

Where does NHDP get money?

  • Budgetary Support
  • A part of cess (under Central Road Fund) is allocated to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to fund the NHDP
  • External Assistance through World Bank, ADB, JBIC, and so on.
  • Public Private Partnership(PPP)
  • Market Borrowings by NHAI

BRO

started operation in the 60s, we just two projects

  • East: Project Tusker (renamed into project Vartak)
  • West: Project Beacon
  • BRO also developed roads abroad, eg Delaram Zaranj road in Afghanistan, and highways in  Bhutan, Myanmar.

Central Road Fund

  • Under the Act of 2000
  • Money comes from Rs.2 per liter as cess on petrol and High speed Diesel. (additional excise duty)
  • Money thus collected, first goes to the Consolidated Fund of India
  • from there, Central Government allocates money to Central Road Fund (CRF) from time to time, after deducting the expenses of collection.
  • Money is used to develop and maintain national, state and village roads + railway overbridges, underbridges and other safety measures

Bharat Nirman

Has 6 components for basic rural infrastructure and one of them is roads.

Component Target (by 2012)? Under ministry?

Rural Housing

1.2 cr houses by 2014 Indira Awaas Yojana under Rural Development ministry.

Roads

All weather roads to all villages with population 1000 (500 for hill/tribal areas) Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna under Rural Development ministry.

Electrification

electrify 1 lakh villages and to provide free electricity connections to 175 lakh BPL households by March 2012 Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) under Power ministry.

Telephone Connectivity

40% rural teledensity  by 2014broadband connection to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayatssetup Bharat Nirman Seva Kendra @Panchayat Level Ministry of Communication and IT

Drinking Water

safe drinking water to all uncovered habitations initially Under ministry of rural Development, now under Ministry of Drinking water and sanitation.

Irrigation.

Bring additional 1 crore hectare land under irrigation Under Ministry of Water resources

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

  • Launched in 2000
  • National rural roads Development agency under Rural Development ministry looks after this. (and not NHAI under highways ministry)
  • programme seeks to connect all habitations
With population of ___ (as per 2001 census) In
500 and above Plain areas
250 and above
  • hill states (North East, Sikkim, HP, JK, Uttarakhand)
  • tribal (Schedule 5) areas
  • Desert Areas

12th FYP: Road Transport

Highways

  • Golden Quadrilateral and North–South and East–West corridors will be finished.
  • Development of road corridors in Delhi– Mumbai industrial corridor project
  • National and State Highways would be upgraded to minimum two lane standard by the end of the Plan.
  • development of 15600 km of express-ways would be developed
  • The National Highways had added 10000 km in the Eleventh Plan. Another 10000 kms will be added during the Twelfth Plan so that the total length of the highways becomes 91200 km.

Port connectivity

  • special links for feeder roads to important railway routes and ports. This is essential for development of domestic and international trade.
  • road connectivity for about 50 minor ports
  • road connectivity for 24 Airports

Rural areas

  • All villages will be connected with all-weather roads by the end of the Plan.

Naxal areas

  • Roads in Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts will be continued and works taken up earlier in the Eleventh Plan be completed during the Plan.
  • Special Package for development of roads in the Schedule Areas (under Fifth Schedule) under Tribal Sub-Plan—1000 km.

JK and North East

  • Road Development in the North-East: Trans-Arunachal Pradesh Highway.
  • The capacities of NHAI and BRO would be further developed for this purpose.
  • State roads in the State of J&K from strategic considerations

Misc

  • Reforms in Motor Vehicles Act to simplify inter-State movement with simplified procedures.
  • Creation of truck terminals to ease traffic congestion

Electronic Toll Collection (ETC)

  • Committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Shri Nandan Nilekani
  • Recommendations of the Committee have been accepted and notified by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for the use of National Highways.
  • pilot project on ETC was inaugurated in  2012 on a section of NH-5 between Delhi and Parwanoo.
  • second pilot project on the Mumbai and Ahmedabad

NATRIP

  • The National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP)
  • under Department of Heavy Industry (with representatives from automobile sector)
  • to set up testing, validation and R&D infrastructure across seven locations in India.

SARDP-NE

  • Special accelerated road Development program for North Eastern Region
  • For improving road connectivity between State Capitals and District HQs in North Eastern Region.

Shipping

  • 100% FDI is allowed in shipping sector
  • India’s coastline: 7517 km
  • 9 Maritime states (5 in Western coast and 4 in Eastern Coast)
  • 13 major ports (guided by Central Government) and 200 non-major (minor) ports (guided by respective State governments)

Major ports: East vs West

West East
name state Name state
  1. Jawahar Nehru, Nhava Shewa
  1. MH
  1. Haldia/Kolkata
  1. WB
  1. Mumbai
  1. Vishakhapatanam
  1. AP
  1. Kandala
  1. Guj
  1. Paradeep (deepest harbor)
  1. Odisha
  1. Mormugao (@Zuvari estuary)
  1. Goa
  1. Tuticorin
  1. TN
  1. New Mangalore
  1. Karnataka
  1. Chennai
  1. Cochin
  1. Kerala
  1. Ennore
  1. Port Blair
Anadaman Nicobar
  • Older books would say 12 major ports but in 2010, Port Blair was added as the 13th major port.

Important org. under Shipping ministry

Director General of Shipping
  • It is a statutory authority under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958
  • examination and certification of Merchant Navy Officers
  • seamen: employment, welfare
  • development of coastal shipping
Director General of light houses and light ships To Help vessels to safely navigate in in Indian coastal waters.
Shipping Corporation of India Navaratna PSU

International Maritime Organization (IMO)= specialized agencies of UN, HQ: London.

National Automatic Identification System (AIS)

  • To provide information about the ship to other ships and to navy, coast guard etc. automatically.
  • This information includes the ship’s identity, type, position, course, speed, navigational status.
  • Prevents collision, helps in search and rescue operations and coastal surveillance.
  • Contract given to Swedish defense company “Saab”- they fitted systems on Indian lighthouses for AIS tracking.
  • Data will be used by directorate general of lighthouses and lightships (DGLL), the Navy, Coast Guard and DG Shipping.

Transchart

  • It is the centralized ship chartering wing of the shipping ministry.
  • to make shipping arrangements for Government Controlled cargoes

Vallarpadam

  • India’s first dedicated international container transshipment terminal setup here.
  • This project reduces our dependence on foreign ports for transshipment of India’s export-import containers.

Sethusamudram project

  • Sethu Samudram is the sea that separates Tamil Nadu, India from Sri Lanka.
  • It encompasses the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait, and Adam’s Bridge(Ram Sethu).
  • Sethusamudran Project will create a shipping canal linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka. This will reduce the time (and fuel) for ships navigating through the region.

map-sethusamudram project

Adam’s Bridge / Ram Sethu

  • It is a discontinuous chain of sandbars and corelreefs between
    1. Rameswaram island (India) and
    2. Talaimannar (Sri lanka)
  • Sethusamudram project aims to dredge the shallow ocean region here and create an artificial passage for ships.

Anti Agruments

  • R.K. Pachauri Committee (appointed by PM) said entire Sethusamudram project is unviable: from both economic and ecological point of view. Yet central Government adamant to launch it

In Supreme Court, TN Government said it was against this project because

  1. The project is a serious threat to the biodiversity of the region and will affect the livelihood of the fishermen.
  2. + sensitive religious sentiments of the people of the country, given that Ram Sethu said to have been built by Lord Rama’s army to reach Lanka.

TN Government also wants central Government to declare Ram Sethu as national monument.

Pro-arguments

  • The project will reduce the shipping time and fuel costs
  • It’ll improve ship traffic (and income) for the minor ports of TN, Andhra, Odisha and WB

Maritime agenda 2020

  • for the decade 2010 to 2020
  • by Ministry of shipping
  • to increase the growth in shipping sector
  • To create a port capacity of around 3200 MT
  • promote coastal shipping as it will help in decongesting our roads and is environment friendly.
  • increase India’s share in global ship building to 5% from the present 1%.
  • Increase Indian seafarers (personnel) in the global shipping industry.

From Economic Survey

  • 95 per cent of India’s trade by volume and 68 per cent in terms of value is transported by sea
  • 31 January 2013, India had a fleet strength of more than 1100 ships public-sector Shipping Corporation of India having the largest share.
  • India is one of the major ship-breaking destinations.
  • India is also one of the major countries supplying seafarers.

Shipping: Challenges

Baltic Dry Index

  • It is the the barometer of merchandise trade as well as shipping services,
  • It has been in the red since the global crisis of 2008 (more discussed in ch.7 click me)

Ageing ships

  • Indian ship fleet is ageing.
  • There is urgent need to increase the shipping fleet so that it is adequate atleast to meet India’s trade volumes.
  • A large and modernized shipping fleet will lead to higher growth, employment and higher earning/ saving of foreign exchange,
  • It will also increase our bargaining power with foreign liners who carry Indian cargo as per their schedule and also discriminate in the transport rates.

Port Services

  • Performance of shipping services and merchandise trade depends on the efficiency of ports.
  • There was a decline in traffic at major ports, which accounted for more than 60 per cent of total traffic
  • As per the World Shipping Council, Shanghai port ranked at the top in terms of total cargo volume handled
  • The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is ranked 30th in terms of total cargo volume handled in 2011
  • Thus efficiency of our ports needs to be improved further.
  • Government has been following the strategy of increasing investment in infrastructure through a combination of public investment and PPP.
  • The Twelfth Five Year Plan with an outlay of more than 3000 crores for the port sector

Taxation

  • Against its counterparts, Indian shipping as against its counterparts is currently subjected to 12 types of taxes.

Manpower

  • Seafarer= A man who serves as a sailor.
  • Main Seafarer supplying countries = China, Philippines, Turkey and Ukraine
  • India should take advantage of its demographic dividend to supply more officers in the international maritime sector.
  • Government has established an Indian Maritime University (IMU) in Chennai, with campuses in Kolkata, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Chennai and Kandla. But more needs to done.
  • There is need for welfare measures for seafares, including a free/subsidized health and insurance policy.
  • Indian ships have to mandatorily employ Indian seafarers, and cannot employ foreign sea-farers as per the Merchant Shipping Act. This needs reform.

Inland Water transport authority of India

  • For development and regulation of inland waterway
  • India’s Inland Waterways which totals about 14500 kilometers in length

National Inland waterway

Length (km)

  1. Allahabad-Haldia stretch of the Ganga- Bhagirathi- Hooghly river system
1620 (longest)
  1. Sadiya-Dhubri stretch of Brahmaputra river
891 (third longest)
  1. Kollam-Kottappuram stretch of West Coast Canal along with Champakara canal and Udyogmandal canal
205
  1. Kakinada-Puducherry stretch of Canals and the Kaluvelly Tank, Bhadrachalam-Rajahmundry stretch of river Godavari and Wazirabad- Vijayawada stretch of river Krishna
1078 (second longest)
  1. Talcher-Dhamra stretch of rivers, Geonkhali-Charbatia stretch of East Coast Canal, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai river and Mahanadi Delta rivers
588
  1. Lakhipur Bhanga on Barak River, Assam (bill pending in parliament)
121

btw, longest national (road) highway= #7 connecting Varanasi with Kanyakumari.

Kaladan Multimodal Transport Project

  • This project was conceptualised by the Ministry of External Affairs
  • to provide alternative connectivity from Mizoram to Haldia/Kolkata ports through River Kaladan in Myanmar.

Some other projects/ports for inland water transport:

  1. Pandu port in Guwahati
  2. Palatana Power Project in Tripura

Indian waterways: challenges

  • Large parts of Indian Waterways have inadequate Least Assured Depth (LAD) for commercial movement of cargo. at least 2.5 m, preferably 3.0 m. LAD is necessary for round the year navigation
  • Several rivers meander (move in spiral / curved / snake like shape) =resulting in increase in distance to be travelled on water-ways as compared to road and rail. Then it becomes uneconomical to transport cargo via river.
  • On many rivers, there are bridges with low vertical clearance which impede passage of bigger vessels on the waterways such as NW-3. These bridges need to be raised to atleast 5m.
  • ‘water tourism’ theme has potential to generate considerable income for the local economies and additional income from tourism. For example, in Kerala, over 2000 people are employed in houseboats and other motorboats that cruise the inland waterways filled with tourists.

12th FYP: Inland Water Transport

  • policies to promote manufacture of Inland Waterways Vessels for cargo movement by private sector
  • Development of National Waterway 4 and 5
  • Development of night infrastructure facilities to help 24 hours navigation.
  • Promoting connectivity with Bangladesh

Aviation

Sector FDI permitted
Scheduled air transport/domestic scheduled passenger airlines 49% FDI (100% for NRI)
Helicopter services 100%
Airports: Greenfield projects 100%
Airports: existing projects 100%

Chicago convention

  • Held in 1944, for aircraft registration and safety.
  • Led to birth of ICAO, the specialized agency of UN international air travel.

ICAO

  • International civil aviation organization (ICAO)
  • HQ: Montreal, Canada
  • India is member since inception of ICAO.

Airlines in India

  • Public sector:
    • Air India and its subsidiaries
  • Private sector
    1. Jet Airways = Naresh Goyal
    2. Jetlite Airlines (originally owned by Sahara, now by Jet Airways)
    3. Kingfisher =you know who.
    4. Spicejet = Sun group (of Kalanidhi Maran)
    5. Interglobe Aviation (IndiGO)
    6. Go Airlines
  • Three cargo airlines
  1. Deccan cargo (Deccan 360) =under Kingfisher.
  2. blue aviation
  3. express Logistics

DGCA

  • directorate general of civil aviation
  • it is the regulatory body in the field of civil aviation
  • registration of civil aircrafts
  • gives license to pilots, airlines maintenance engineer
  • supervision of flying/gliding clubs
  • investigation of minor accidents
  • implementing Chicago Convention

Bureau of civil aviation security

  • initially it was a cell in DGCA, now an independent department under the Ministry of civil aviation, after Kanishka Tragedy in 85
  • for matters related to hijacking, training of civil aviation security personnel

Pilot Training

  • Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi (IGRUA)
    • in Raebareli UP
    • WOMBAT: pilot aptitude test Trainer
    • TALON: the pilot training at IGRUA is managed by this web based training  Management system.
  • Rajeev Gandhi National flying training Institute
    • in Gondia
    • Joint venture of AAI + a Canadian company

AAI

  • it is a public sector undertaking (PSU) under  Ministry of civil aviation
  • for development and  Management of airport infrastructure

FANS

  • Future air navigation system
  • AAI implementing it.
  • Includes
Shifting from To
voice communication digital data communication
ground based navigation satellite-based navigation (GAGAN)

GAGAN

  • GPS aided Geo augmented navigation system
  • it is a satellite-based navigation system development by AAI + ISRO
  • GAGAN GPS devices help pilot to fly in difficult weather, fog, tough terrains.
  • GAGAN will also help in
  • high-quality Air Traffic Management (ATM)
  • to all modes of transportation, including maritime, highways, railways
  • public services such as defense services, security agencies
  • disaster recovery management by aiding in search and rescue to locate the disaster zone accurately,
  • telecom industry and personal users of position location applications.

Air India

Chief: Rohit Nandan

Subsidiaries of Air India

  • Hotel Corporation of India
  • Vayudoot ltd
  • Alliance Air

(it has other subsidiaries too but they contain “air India” in their name, hence unworthy of tricky MCQs hahaha)

Pawan Hans Helicopter ltd

  • it is a government-owned company
  •  provides helicopter service to
    • ONGC’s offshore drilling platforms
    • hilly and inaccessible areas
    • Amarnath Yatra
    • emergency evacuation

Airport economic regulatory authority (AERA)

  • to foster healthy competition among major airports
  • regulate airport tariffs

Aviation: recent Developments

  • Dharmadhikari Committee was setup by Civil Aviation ministry to address the contentious HR issues caused due to merger of AirIndia and Indian airlines.
  • State Government  of Kerala wants to launch “Air Kerala”. (more details on Pravasi Bharatiya article click me)
  • Tata and Malaysia’s Air Asia formed Joint venture to enter in Domestic airline business In India.
  • Jet Airways (Naresh Goyal) sold (FIPB) to sell 24% stakes in the company to Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi, UAE based)
  • Air India has warned the government that foreign investment (e.g. Jet Etihad) will hurt the interests of domestic airlines and prevent Indian airports from developing into international hubs. (lolz in other words, Air India is saying that since we don’t have the aukaat to grow, don’t let others grow either!).

Aviation Challenges:

#ATF

  • high taxation on aviation turbine fuel (ATF)
  • ATF alone accounts for 40% of the operating cost of Indian airlines
  • ATF is priced 60% higher in India compared to other countries in the region
  • ATF should be accorded the status of “Declared Good” that carries lower and uniform tax rate.

#predatory pricing

  • Predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, to drive competitors out of the market, or to prevent potential new competitors from coming in the market.
  • Indian airlines often use the predatory pricing to destroy their competitors (and in the process bleed and make losses for themselves as well).

#Other

  • High aircraft to man ratio
  • Loss making Airindia and its frequent strikes.

Greenfield and Brownfield

Greenfield

Brownfield

Setting up new project in a virgin / vacant site. Redevelopment in site where buildings, infrastructure already exists.
International airport @Devanahalli near Bengaluru.It is a PPP involving Larsen n Toubro, Siemens Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai
International airport @Shamshabad near Hyderabad.PPP involving GMR group and Malaysian company.Both PPP projects have BOOT model: Build-own-Operate and Transfer. Delhi International Airport, DIAL

Another greenfield airport that has been in news= Panvel, Navi Mumbai because of environmental issues.

12th FYP: Aviation

  • Encouraging emergence of regional airlines to cater to air transport needs of Tier II and Tier III tours and promoting low cost carriers for this purpose
  • Double of passenger handling capacity of Airports primarily through private investments (PPP).
  • Upgradation of Air Navigation Services (ANS) using the latest technology
  • New Policy for ATF to improve Airline competitiveness
  • Set up of National Aviation University

Mock Questions

  1. What is the width of single lane highway in meters?
    1. 3
    2. 3.5
    3. 3.75
    4. 4
  2. Which of the following is/are sources of funding for NHDP?
    1. Cess
    2. External assistance from World bank, ADB
    3. Market borrowing
    4. All of above
  3. Project Vartak, Beacon are associated with
    1. Ministry of Environment and Forest
    2. DG Shipping
    3. BRO
    4. None of above
  4. Central Road fund is utilized for Development of
    1. national highways
    2. village roads
    3. railway overbridges
    4. all of above
  5. Which of the following is not a component of Bharat Nirman?
    1. Rural housing
    2. rural roads
    3. irrigation
    4. rural employment
  6. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana falls under Ministry of
    1. Highways and roads
    2. Panchayati Raj
    3. Social welfare
    4. Rural Development
  7. PMGSY seeks to provide all weather roads to habitations in plain areas with population ____ or above as per 2001 census
    1. 500
    2. 1000
    3. 1500
    4. none of above
  8. National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) is associted with ministry of
    1. HRD
    2. Communication and IT
    3. Heavy Industries and Public enterprises
    4. Science and Technology
  9. Lenght of India’s coastline in Kms
    1. 7513
    2. 7515
    3. 7517
    4. none of above
  10. Correct Statement
    1. India has 9 maritime states
    2. 5 on Eastern Coast
    3. 4 on Western Coast
    4. None of above
  11. On Eastern coast, which state has maximum number of Major ports?
    1. WB
    2. AP
    3. TN
    4. None of above
  12. On Western coast, which state has maximum number of Major ports?
    1. Guj
    2. MH
    3. Karnataka
    4. None of above
  13. In India, which state has maximum number of Major ports?
    1. MH
    2. TN
    3. Goa
    4. None of above
  14. National Automatic identification system (AIS) is meant for
    1. habitual criminals
    2. heavy vehicles
    3. endegered wild species
    4. Ships
  15. Sethusamudran Project wants to connect ____ and ____.
    1. Adam’s bridge, Ram Sethu
    2. Gulf of Myanmar, Bay of Bengal
    3. Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay
    4. None of above
  16. PM had formed a Committee for Sethusamudram Project, who was its chairman?
    1. Justice JS Verma
    2. DD Gadgil
    3. RK Pachauri
    4. None of above
  17. Maritime Agenda 2010-2020 is related to
    1. International Maritime Organization
    2. BIMSTEC
    3. Ministry of Shipping
    4. None of Above
  18. Which National inland waterway is lengthiest?
    1. 3
    2. 5
    3. 7
    4. None of above
  19. Which national highway is lengthiest?
    1. 3
    2. 5
    3. 7
    4. None of above
  20. 6th National inland waterway is associated with ___ river
    1. Barak
    2. Luni
    3. Krishna
    4. None of above
  21. Kaladan multimodal transport project aims to connect ___ with ____.
    1. Dhaka, Kolkata
    2. Aizwal, Kohima
    3. Mizoram, Kolkata
    4. Myanmar, Assam
  22. GAGAN is jointly Developed by ___ and ____
    1. ISRO, CSIR
    2. ISRO, Airforce
    3. AAI, Airforce
    4. AAI, ISRO
  23. Which of the following is not a subsidiary of Air India
    1. Hotel Corporation of India
    2. Vayudoot Ltd
    3. Alliance Air
    4. Express Logistics
  24. Which of the following is a site for greenfield airport
    1. Devanahalli
    2. Shamshabad
    3. Panvel
    4. all of above
  25. Which of the following is not a function of DGCA?
    1. registration of civil aircrafts
    2. supervision of flying/gliding clubs
    3. Management of airport infrastructure
    4. all of above
  26. In India, Future air navigation system (FANS) is being implemented by
    1. Airforce
    2. DRDO
    3. AAI
    4. None of above