GK Notes on Water & Air Transport in India

Geography covers a good number of questions making it an important topic to cover in SSC Exams.  Around 6 – 8 questions are asked from Geography which surely makes it important for you to study the topic well for upcoming SSC and Other Competitive Exams. Here are some short notes on “Transportation in India: Water & Air Transport”  which you should not ignore.

Water Transport 

India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. The waterways of the country have been divided into internal waterways and oceanic waterways.

The following waterways have been declared as National Waterways:

  • NW1- Allahabad to Haldia – 1620 Km
  • NW2- Sadia to Dhubri on Brahmaputra River- 891 Km
  • NW3- Kollam to Kottapuram – 168 km
  • NW4- Kakinada to  Marakkannam along Goodavari and Krishna river – 1095 km
  • NW5 – Mangalgarhi to Paradeep and Talcher to Dhamara along Mahanadi and Brahmini- 623 Km

12 -Major Ports in India

Western Coast

  • Tidal Port –(Child of partition) – Gujarat
  • Mumbai – (Busiest and biggest)  -  Maharashtra
  • JL Nehru-(Fastest growing)- Maharashtra
  • Marmugao – (Naval base also) – Goa
  • Mangalore – (Exports Kudremukh iron – ore) – Karnataka
  • Cochin – (Natural harbor) – Kerala

Eastern Coast

  • Kandla  Paradip  - (exports raw iron to japan)  - Odisha
  • Vishakhapatnam – (deepest port) – Andhra Pradesh
  • Chennai –( Most modern in private hands) – Tamil Nadu
  • Ennore – (Most modern in Private hands)  - Tamil Nadu
  • Tuticorin- (Southernmost) – Tamil Nadu
  • Port Blair – (Strategically important)- Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Air Transport

  • JRD Tata was the first person to take a solo flight form Mumbai to Karachi in 1931.
  • In 1935, the ‘Tata Air Lines’ started its operation between Mumbai andThiruvananthapuram and in 1937 between Mumbai and Delhi.
  • In 1953, all the private airline companies were nationalized and Indian Airlines and Air India came into existence.
  • Vayudoot Limited started in 1981 as a private air carrier and later on it merged with Indian Airlines.
  • International  Airports Authority of India and National Airports Authority were merged on 1995 to form Airports Authority of India.
  • The Authority manages the Civil Aviation Training College at Allahabad and National Institute of Aviation Management and Research at Delhi.

12 International Airports in India

  • Rajiv Gandhi International Airport – Hyderabad
  • Calicut International Airport – Calicut
  • Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport- Mumbai
  • Kempe Gowda International Airport –Bengaluru
  • Goa Airport in Vasco di Gama city- Goa
  • Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport – Kolkata
  • Thiruvananthapuram International Airport – Thiruvananthapuram
  • Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport – Guwahati
  • Sardar Vallabbhbhai Patel International Airport – Ahmedabad
  • Indira Gandhi International Airport – Delhi
  • Chennai International Airport – Chennai
  • Shri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport – Amritsar