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CBSEScience (English Medium) Class 12
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Syllabus

Overview of Transport and Communication

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Estimated time: 15 minutes
CBSE: Class 12

Key Points: Transport

  • Natural resources and markets are located in different places, so transport, communication and trade connect producing centres with consuming centres.
  • Transport is a service for carrying people and goods from one place to another by land, water, air and pipelines.
  • The main modes of transportation are:
    Land (roads and railways)
    Water (shipping and waterways)
    Air (airways)
    Pipelines (for petroleum, gas, etc.)
  • Each mode is used according to need:
    Roads – short distances and door-to-door service
    Railways – bulky goods over long distances
    Water transport – international trade (cheap for heavy goods)
    Airways – high-value and perishable goods
  • Efficient transport and communication improve trade, national unity, defence, and quality of life, and all modes of transport complement each other in a well-managed system.
CBSE: Class 12

Key Points: Land Transport

  • Land transport is the most common type of transport, and earlier it depended on humans, animals, carts and wagons.
  • The invention of the steam engine in the 18th century led to the development of railways, and the first public railway started in 1825 in England (Stockton–Darlington).
  • The invention of the internal combustion engine improved road transport, leading to the growth of motor cars and trucks.
  • Pack animals are still used in many regions:
    Mules in mountains, camels in deserts, reindeer/dogs in snowy regions, and bullocks in India.
  • Road transport is economical for short distances and provides door-to-door service, but roads may become unusable during heavy rains and floods.
  • Highways are wide metalled roads made for fast traffic flow with bridges, flyovers and separate lanes. Example: India’s Golden Quadrilateral connects Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
  • Railways are best for bulky goods and long-distance travel. Major railway networks are found in Europe, Russia, North America, India, China and Japan, and important transcontinental routes include Trans-Siberian Railway and Trans-Canadian Railway.
CBSE: Class 12

Key Points: Water Transport

  • Water transport is cheaper than land transport because it does not require route construction and water friction is less, so energy cost is low.
  • Water transport is mainly of two types: Sea Routes and Inland Waterways, and it depends mainly on ports at both ends.
  • Sea routes are important for carrying bulky goods over long distances between continents. Modern ships use radar, wireless navigation, refrigerated chambers, tankers and container systems.
  • The Northern Atlantic Sea Route is the busiest route in the world and is called the Big Trunk Route, carrying about one-fourth of world trade.
  • Important sea routes include:
    Mediterranean–Indian Ocean Route (via Suez Canal)
    Cape of Good Hope Route
    North and South Pacific Routes
    Southern Atlantic Route
  • Shipping canals are man-made waterways:
    Suez Canal (Egypt, 1869) connects Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea and reduces travel distance.
    Panama Canal connects Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and reduces distance between New York and San Francisco.
  • Inland waterways include rivers, canals and lakes, useful for transporting heavy goods like coal, cement, timber and ores. Important inland waterways are Rhine, Danube, Volga, Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Seaway, and Mississippi-Ohio system.
CBSE: Class 12

Key Points: Air Transport

  • Air transport is the fastest means of transport, but it is very costly, so it is mainly used for long-distance passenger travel and valuable cargo.
  • It is very useful for reaching inaccessible areas like deserts, snowy mountains, and regions affected by landslides or heavy snowfall.
  • Air transport has increased global connectivity and reduced travel time greatly—today no place in the world is more than 35 hours away by air.
  • The development of air transport requires costly infrastructure like airports, hangars, landing, fuelling and maintenance facilities, so it is more common in developed countries.
  • Inter-continental air routes are dense in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Eastern U.S.A., Western Europe and Southeast Asia, and the U.S.A. has about 60% of the world’s airways.
CBSE: Class 12

Key Points: Pipelines and Communications

  • Pipelines are used to transport liquids and gases like water, petroleum, natural gas and LPG in a continuous and uninterrupted flow.
  • Pipelines can also carry special products like liquefied coal and even milk (example: New Zealand supplies milk through pipelines).
  • U.S.A. has a dense pipeline network, and the Big Inch pipeline carries petroleum from the Gulf of Mexico to North-eastern U.S.A.
  • Modern communication has developed from telegraph and telephone to satellites and the Internet. Telephones and mobile phones are important for both urban and rural connectivity.
  • Satellite communication and cyberspace (Internet) have made global communication faster and cheaper. The Internet connects billions of people and supports e-mail, e-commerce, e-learning and e-governance, making the world a global village.
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