Geography Part 3 Revision Test in English

The word tourist was derived from an old English word “tourian” which refers to a person who travels out of his usual environment for not more than one year and less than 24 hours. The three main components of tourism are Attraction, Accessibility, Amenities.

India has the second longest road network in the world with a total length of 56,03,293 km as of 2016. About 85% of passengers and 70 % of freight traffic are carried by roads every year.

Sher shah suri built the shahi (Royal) road to strengthen and consolidate his empire from the Indus valley to the Sonar valley in Bengal. This road from Kolkata to Peshawar was renamed as Grand Trunk (GT) road during the British period.

The longest National highway is NH-7 which runs from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Kaniyakumari in Tamil Nadu covering a distance of 2369 km. As per the recent rationalization of Highway numbers this is renamed as NH 44.

The shortest national highway is NH-47A, which runs from Ernakulum to Kochi port (Willington Island) covering a distance of 6 km.

The state highways are usually roads that link important cities, towns and district headquarters within the state and connect them with national highways or highways of neighbouring states. These roads are administered and financed by state governments.

Rural roads (village roads) connectivity is a key component of rural development. These roads are vital for providing links in the rural areas. Rural roads consist of Panchayat roads, (Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, Gram Panchayat); roads of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and those constructed by the State PWDs.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was established in 1995. It is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Surface Transport.

Border Roads are the roads of strategic importance in border areas. They are constructed and maintained by Border Roads Organization. It was established in 1960 for the development of the roads of strategic importance in the northern and north-eastern border areas.

Border Roads Organization has constructed world’s highest road joining Chandigarh and Leh in Ladakh. This road runs at an average altitude of 4,270 meters.

Golden Quadrilateral connecting, India’s four metropolitan cities: Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai-Delhi. This project was launched in 1999.

The two corridors, North-South and East-West corridors intersect at Jhansi. North-South corridor aims at connecting Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir with Kaniyakumari, The East-West corridor has been planned to connect Silchar in Assam with the port town of Porbandar in Gujarat.

Expressways are multi-lane good quality highways for high speed traffic. Some of the important expressways are; (i)Mumbai-Pune Road, (ii) Kolkata-Dumdum Airport road (iii) Durgapur-Kolkata road and (iv) Yamuna expressway between Delhi and Agra.

Road density is the highest in Kerala and lowest in Jammu &Kashmir. In mountainous area, it is quite difficult to construct roads.

International Highways are the roads that link India with neighbouring countries for promoting harmonious relationship with them. These highways have been constructed with an aid from world bank under an agreement with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific (ESCAP).

Indian railway system is the main artery of the country’s inland transport. Railways are considered as the backbone of the surface transport system of India.

The first train steamed off from Mumbai to Thane in 1853, covering a distance of 34 km.

In 1951, the systems were nationalized as one unit “The Indian Railways”. The headquarter of Indian Railways is New Delhi.

There is no railway station in Meghalaya. For the state people, Guwahati is the nearest Railway station. It was recently declared by the CM of the state that the first railway station in Meghalaya at Mendipathar in the North Garo Hills would be inaugurated soon.

The first sub-urban railway was started in 1925 in Mumbai. The Kolkata Suburban Railway has the largest network in the entire country.

The rail link between Banihal in Jammu region and Qazigund in Kashmir valley was opened in 2013. This rail line passes under the Pir Panchal Range through a 11.2 km long tunnel.

The metro in Kolkata is the first one in India. It is also called as Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS).

Gatiman Express is the fastest operational train in India. This train connects New Delhi and Agra and touches 160 km/h. This train takes a travel time of 105minutes to cover 200km journey. [But, the current fastest train in India is the Vande Bharat Express (a.k.a Train 18) with an operational speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) and average speed of 100 km/h (62 mph), which runs between New Delhi and Varanasi.]

One of the important achievements of Indian Railways has been the construction of Konkan Railway in 1998. It is considered as an engineering marvel.

Oil field in upper Assam to Kanpur, from Salaya in Gujarat to Jalandhar in Punjab and gas pipeline from the Hazira in Gujarat to Jagadispur in Uttar Pradesh are the three important network large network of pipeline in the country.

A waterway is an important mode of transport for both passenger and cargo traffic in India. It is the oldest and also the cheapest means of transport and most suitable for carrying heavy and bulky materials from one country to another. It is a fuel-efficient and eco-friendly mode of transport.

The total cargo carried by inland waterways is just about 0.1% of the total inland traffic of India.

For the development, maintenance and regulation of national waterways in the country, the Inland water ways Authority was setup in 1986.

National Waterway 2: This waterway includes the stretch of the Brahmaputra river between Dhubri and Sadiya a distance of 891 km.

National Waterway 3: This waterway extends between Kollam and Kottapuram in the state of Kerala. It is the first national waterway in the country with 24 hours navigation facilities along its entire stretch of 205 km.

There are 13 major and 200 minor or intermediate ports in India. The major ports are administered by the Central Government and minor ports are managed and administered by various state governments.

The three major ports in Tamil Nadu state are- Ennore Port, Tuticorin Port, and Chennai Port.

The major ports on the east coast are Kolkata (including Haldia Dock), Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Ennore and Tuticorin. The major ports on the west coast are Kandla, Mumbai, Nhava Seva (Jawaharlal Nehru Port), New Mangalore, Marmagao and Kochi.

India has four major shipyards. Hindustan shipyard in Vishakhapatnam, Garden Reach workshop in Kolkata, Mazagaon Dock in Mumbai, Kochi Shipyard in Kochi.

Air transport in India made a beginning on 18th February, 1918 when Henry Piquet carried a mail from Allahabad to Naini. In 1953, eight different airlines which were in operation in the country were nationalised.

Some of them are Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, Chennai International Airport, Chennai, Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, Thiruvananthapuram, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, Bangalore International Airport, Bengaluru, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad etc.

Pavan-Hans Helicopter Ltd has been providing Helicopter support services to the petroleum sector, including ONGC and oil India Ltd. It is a public sector company based in New Delhi.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) was constituted in 1995. It provides security to Indian Airports. AAI under the ministry of Civil Aviation is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure in India.

The Indian postal network is the largest in the world with 1,55,000 post offices. Of these more than 1,39,000 post offices are located in rural areas.

In 2007, the Government of India merged the Air India and Indian Airlines under National Aviation Corporation of India Limited (NACIL). In which NACIL (A) provides international services, NACIL (I) provides domestic services and services to neighbouring countries in south east Asia and middle East.

Radio broadcasting in India was started in 1923 by the Radio club of Bombay. Since then it gained immense popularity and changed the social and cultural life of people. It was named as All India Radio (AIR) in 1936 and again it was renamed as Akashwani in 1957.

The communication through satellites emerged as a new era in communication in our country after the establishment of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1969.

The INSAT, established in 1983, is a multipurpose system for telecommunication, meteorological observation and for various other programs. The INSAT series are used for relaying signals to television, telephone, radio, mobile phone.

The grand trunk road is India’s longest major road connecting Sonargaon in Bangladesh to Peshawar in Pakistan for a distance of 2500 Kms

TC – Inclusive Tour Charter, IATA – International Air Transport Association IATO – Indian Association of Tour Operators, TAAI - Travel Agents Association of India, TTTHA - Tamil Nadu Tour Travel and Hospitality Association, TTDC – Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation.

India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, lakes and backwaters. It depends upon the depth and width of the waterways and the continuity of the water flow. The total navigable length of our country is 14,500 km, out of which about 5,200 km length of rivers and 4,000 km length of canals can be used by mechanized crafts.

India is the second largest ship owning country in Asia and ranks 16th in the World. Greece stands in the 1st place of largest ship owning nations.

With over 460 million internet users, India is the second largest online market, ranked only behind China.

By 2021, there will be about 635.8 million internet users in India. Despite the large base of internet users in India, only 26 percent of the Indian population accessed the internet in 2015.

The significant increase in comparison to the previous years, considering the internet penetration rate in India stood at about 10 percent in 2011. Furthermore, men dominated internet usage in India with 71 percent to women’s 29 percent.

GSAT–7A is the recent launch (December 19, 2018) for communication programs. INSAT-1B launched on 30th August 1983 is the first communication satellite in INSAT series.

India is the only one country which has reached to the mars in its first attempt. No other country has achieved this on its first attempt.

Presently, there are 19 designated international airports available in the country. These airports are managed by Airports Authority of India.

The Quick Mail Service functions on the basis of the system of PIN (Postal Index Number) code which was introduced in 1972.

The longest National highway is NH-7 which runs from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Kaniyakumari in Tamil Nadu covering a distance of 2369 km. now, NH-7 is now known as NH-44.

The Mass Communication Systems can provide the information to people in two methods. They are Print Media and Electronic Media.

The length of National Highways in the State of Tamil Nadu is 4994 km out of which 1985 km are maintained by National Highways wing and the balance 3009 km are maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

To meet the ever increasing demand of public, there are seven transport corporations functioning in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu state transport corporation- Coimbatore (Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur, Nilgiris districts).

Among the Road Transport Office, Chennai is the largest RTO which has 61 centres.

The Golden Quadrilateral project of national highway development that runs for about 1232 Kms in Tamil Nadu has completed.

The southern railways zone has been demarcated into six divisions, namely, Chennai, Madurai, Salem, Palakkad, thiruvanathapuram and Trichy.

The Coastline of Tamil Nadu is located on the southeast coast of Indian Peninsula, and forms a part of Coromandel Coast of Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. It is 1000 km long and is the Third-longest coastline in the country after Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Tamil Nadu has three major ports at Ennore, Chennai and Tuticorin and sixteen minor ports at Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Rameswaram, Kolachal.

All India Radio has 15 radio stations in Tamil Nadu. Private broadcasters have setup FM and broadcast a variety of programmes on education, agriculture and entertainment.

In 2015 metro rail transport started in Chennai from Koyambedu to Alandur.

Indian railway network is second largest in Asia and 4th largest in the world. The Indian railways employs the largest work force in the world.

The MRTS line currently runs from Velachery to Chennai beach covers a total distance of 25 Kms with 17 stations.

Buckingham canal was once an important waterway in Tamil Nadu. It, once carried goods from Nellore to Marakkanam but sadly now it is polluted.

The cape of good hope connects western and southern Europe to south West Asia and Australia.

India is bounded by Bay of Bengal, Arabian sea and Indian ocean with a total coastline of 6100 Kms (Indian mainland).

The first development in communication was the invention of telegraph in 1844. The next important development was the invention of telephone in 1875. The development of telex (telegraph exchange) in 1935 enabled messages written in one place to be transmitted to distant places.

Tap line or trans-Arabian pipeline from Qaisumah in Saudi Arabia to sidon in Lebanon runs for a distance of 1214 Kms.

Airways are the fastest and costliest means of transport which carry passengers, freight and mail. Air travel has gained immense popularity.

The field of Remote Sensing and GIS has become exciting with rapidly expanding opportunities. Geoinformatics has three major components namely remote sensing, GIS and GNSS.

The energy is required to illuminate the target. This energy is in the form of Electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation is a dynamic form of energy that propagates as wave motion at a velocity in space.

The first known aerial photograph was taken in 1858 by French photographer and balloonist, Gaspar Felix Tournachon, known as "Nadar".

Geostationary Satellite is an equatorial west to east satellite orbiting the earth at an altitude of 35000 km, the altitude at which it makes on revolution in 24 hours.

These platforms are covering the same place and give continuous near hemispheric coverage over the same area day and night. These satellites are put in equatorial plane orbiting from west to east. Its coverage is limited to 70°N to 70°S latitudes and one satellite can view one-third globe.

Geostationary Satellite are mainly used for communication and meteorological applications viz. GOES, METEOSAT, INTELSAT, and INSAT satellites.

India once again broke a global space record by launching the world's lightest satellite weighing a mere 64 grams, called Kalam-sat. It was designed and developed not by professional space scientists and engineers, but by 18-year-old Tamil Nadu student Rifath Sharook and his team.

For operations and management, the Indian Railways is organized into 17 zones. 1) Northern Railway - Delhi 2) North Western Railway - Jaipur 3) North-Central Railway- Allahabad 4) North-Eastern Railway - Gorakhpur 5) North-East Frontier Railway - Guwahati 6) Eastern Railway - Kolkata 7) East coast Railway - Bhubaneswar 8) East-Central Railway - Hazipur 9) West-Central Railway - Jabalpur 10) Central Railway - Mumbai (VT) 11) Western Railway - Mumbai (Churchgate) 12) Southern Railway - Chennai 13) South Central Railway - Secunderabad 14) South Eastern Railway - Kolkata 15) South-Western Railway - Hubball and 16) South East Central Railway – Bilaspur 17) south coastal railways- Visakhapatnam(recently created railway zone).

On the basis of width of the track, the Indian railways fall under four categories. Broad gauge with a width of 1.676 meters, Meter gauge with a width of 1 meter and Narrow gauge with a width of 0.762 meter and Light gauge with 0.610 meter.

As of September 2018, India has 507 km of operational metro lines and 381 stations.

On its routes, the Konkan railway crosses 146 rivers and streams, nearly 2000 bridges and 73 tunnels.

It connects Roha in Maharashtra to Mangaluru in Karnataka and the track measures 760 km. It is considered as an engineering marvel.

There are 8 cities with metro rail connectivity in India. They are Kolkata (West Bengal), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Delhi, Bengaluru (Karnataka), Gurgaon (Haryana), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Kochi (Kerala). [But now, the Metro railway system and service are operational in 10 cities in India. These are Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur, Kochi, Hyderabad, and Lucknow.]

National Waterway 1: It extends between Haldia and Allahabad, measures 1620 km and includes the stretches of the Ganga Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system.

Thalaiyar waterfalls Horse tail type located in Dindugul district of Tamil Nadu Jog water falls Segmented waterfall (Raja, Rani and thunder) located in Shimogo district of Karnataka. Nohkalikai waterfalls Tallest plunge type of waterfall situated in the East khasi hill district of Meghalaya. Talakona waterfalls It is the highest waterfall in Andhra Pradesh. A lot of medicinal herbs are seen around the region. Aathirappally waterfalls The Niagara of India, is located in Thrissur district of Kerala.

Inbound Tourism: Touring within the native country. Outbound Tourism: Touring in foreign countries.

The states of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka are partners in undertaking the Konkan railways.

CMBT (Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus), which is the largest bus terminus in Asia, Koyambedu, Chennai has been established.

The ECR (East Coast Road) running along the Bay of Bengal, from Chennai to Cuddalore via Pondicherry. It gives a spectacular scenic view with beaches and fisherman hamlets. Presently, it has been extended to thuthukudi via Chidambaram, Nagapattinam and Ramanathapuram.

Now solids can also be transported through a pipeline when converted into slurry. The initial cost of laying pipeline is high but subsequent running cost is minimum. It can be laid through difficult terrain as well as under water. It ensures steady supply of goods and reduces the trans-shipment losses and delays are the major advantages of pipeline transport.

The first Indian postal stamp was issued in 1852 in Karachi. Collecting and delivering mail is the primary function of the department of posts.

Postal system introduced the Quick Mail Service in 1975 and today it covers the entire country. The Quick Mail Service functions on the basis of the system of PIN.

Apart from the urban areas more than two-thirds of the villages in India have already been covered with Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) telephone facility, while International communication can be made through ISD (International Subscriber Dialling). There is a uniform rate of STD facilities all over India.

Golden Quadrilateral, a 5,846 km long road of 4/6 lanes connecting, India’s four metropolitan cities: Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai-Delhi.

The Indian Airlines and Air India are the two airline services run by the government of India. Indian Airlines provides the domestic air services and Air India provides international air services.

One of the important achievements of Indian Railways has been the construction of Konkan Railway which has a tunnel for nearly 6.44 km long is in this route.