Travel and tourism are inseparable. Accessibility is the basic element of tourism.

One can’t
imagine tourism without travel. Among the three basic elements of tourism i.e. attraction,
accessibilities and accommodation, it is accessibility which determines the size of the tourism
industry. The attraction may be best of its kind, but not supported by any mean of transportation
will remains useless. India's Top Adventure Activities: Discover the Best Thril
Play VideoTransportationis the beginner of tourism business which brings tourists from the place of origin
to place of destination. There are a number of examples where good accessibility converted a normal
place into a world-class attraction.

Similarly, there are a number of examples where despite very unique natural and cultural attractions
could not develop due to lack of good linkage. Thus, transportation plays a key role in tourism.

There can be three main types of transportation:

1. Surface – It can be subdivided into roads and railways.

2. Waterways – It can be subdivided into sea waters and inland.
3. Airways

Roads
Roads are the backbone of any country’s economy. There are most important infrastructures of
any place as they provide door to door services. They link interior places with main markets.
They do not need very heavy investment in comparison to Railways, Ships or Aviation.

They enhance the economic value of goods, bring price uniformity and provides social integration.
They are becoming more and more important when the number of personal vehicles is increasing day by
day everywhere.

India is the seventh largest country in area with second largest population but due to several
natural and human reasons such as varied topography, seasonal vagaries, rampant poverty and
unequal distribution of population the roads are not sufficient in length and quality.

In 1947, India had 157,000 km long surfaced and 243,000 km long unsurfaced roads. By the year
1996 it became 13,34,078 km and 10,69,556 km respectively.

The importance of roads can be estimated from the fact that the share of roads in carrying
passengers was 87% and 65% freight.

There are four types of roads in India from their administration construction and maintenance
point of view :
National Highways
They are most important among all the types of roads. They link main cities and capitals of
different states. These are totally under central Govt. through Central Public Work
Departments. Their length is 52000 Km, which is only 2 percent of total lengths of roads, but
they carry 40 percent of traffic. About 20 percent of National highways are single lane and at
several places, they are victims of deserts, flood, cyclone, and landslide etc. However, their
condition is satisfactory.
State Highways
They are under state governments through State Public Works Departments. These roads
are linking main cities and district headquarters of states. However, their conditions depend
upon the economy of state and region concerned i.e. in developed states they are in good
conditions while in poor states they are in poor conditions.
Particularly after the floods and cyclones the affected areas the roads have vanished for long
period. Several times due to importance or political pressure some sections of state highways are
upgraded into national highways.
Districts Roads
These are under district administration, may be surfaced or unsurfaced. These are funded by
central govt., state govt., district administration, and several other agencies under different
schemes.

Their physical conditions also depend on the economy of the region. Their maintenance and
repairing are also affected by physical, climatic and economic conditions of concerned places.
Rural Roads
These roads depend on the economic condition and social awareness of the places. They are
constructed by the Panchayat under the minimum need programmes (such as NREP, IRDP, JYR
etc.). However, under National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government they got the boost under
Prime Minister Rural Road Programme.

These roads are surfaced and unsurfaced, mostly single lane. At present total length of rural
roads is approximately 8 lakh km.

Role of Roads in Tourism

There are several sections of roads in India where travel is a lifelong experience. Those sections
of golden quadrilateral and corridors which are completed eg. in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi,
Rajasthan, U.P., J&K, have shortened the period of the journey, lessen the risk of accidents,
lessen the wear and tear of vehicles, thus increased the pleasure of journey and increased the
efficiency of vehicles.

The road linkages in tourist destinations play a very important role. Due to the good conditions
of roads, the latest model of coaches, and cars are playing everywhere. This has increased
tourism to a new high.

Railways
The first rail engine was run in 1825 by George Stephenson between Stockton to
Darlington. Within three decades, the first rail in India ran between Bori Bander to Thane (a
distance of 35km) on April 16, 1853. Thereafter there was a fast development in the field of
railway expansion, upgradation, and technological development.

During independence, the track length was 52 thousand km, which at present is about 63
thousand km. During this period brandification of gauges, electrification of routes,
modernization of coaches with public friendly utilities have been incorporated in Railways.

Now Indian railway is the second longest in Asia after China, but largest management. It had
about 7000 railways stations, runs about 12,000 trains daily and carry about 15 million
passengers every day. At present, there are 17 zones of railway administration.
Role of Railways in Tourism
Indian railway plays an important role in tourism. Journey through trains gives a unique
experience. Tourist can see the natural sceneries through trains. Railways connect the major
cities of India to popular tourist attractions. A foreigner can experience true India through the
riding of Indian railway. India railways give an inner view of Indian lifestyles and culture.

Indian railway operates special tourist trains such as Palace on Wheel, The Fairy Queen etc.
Many toys trains are formulated by Indian railway. India is a vast country and Indian railway
connect the small destinations to large destinations.

Airways
15th October 1932 is a date which is a milestone in the path of Indian civil aviation when great
industrialist and one of the pioneers of Indian development took a flight from Karachi to
Bombay. Very soon this service was extended up to Madras. He inspired other entrepreneurs
who started their airlines.
Thus, a new dimension of transport started their airlines. During World War II they played
important role in the transportation of army and ration, thus they become economically and
technically sound.

When India becomes independent then India had nine airlines, among them TATA Airline was
most important and it was converted into Air India International Ltd. Functions of these
private airlines were not satisfactory, so govt nationalized the air transport industry on 1st
August 1953. These airlines companies were merged under the Air Corporation Act and two
new corporations were set up:
Air India Corporation for international and long-haul operations.
Indian Airlines Corporation for domestic and neighbouring counties.
In the 1960s both airlines replaced their fleet of old places with jet planes. Thereafter time to
time they replaced old with latest available planes thus they had the latest aircraft with the latest
technology.
Role of Air Transport in Tourism
Air transport is very important for India for tourism purpose. Air transport is the quickest, most
modern, safe and latest addition to the modes of transport. India is very far from its main tourist
market i.e. west Europe and USA. The water transport may take several months.

Due to the great physiographic barrier of the Himalayas in the north, the Pamir, Hindukush
Range in the north-west and the Arakan – Pegu Yoma in the north-east, surface transport is not
possible. So air transport provides the best option. In fact, about ninety percent of inbound
tourists prefer air transport.

Even in India, air transport is a good option because India is such a vast country that surface
journey may take a long time. For a foreigner tourist it is difficult to invest many days in the
journey and a few days at destinations, so he/she prefer air journey.

Air India, the Indian and the alliance air offer several packages example ‘Discover India’ and
‘Wonder India’ at very cheap rates with travel and travel and accommodation facilities.
Water Transport
There are two types of water transport in India

(a) Inland water transport and

(b) Seawater transport.
Inland Water Transport
In India, the Himalayan rivers are perennial with a sufficient volume of water throughout the
year, but peninsular rivers are seasonal with a very fluctuating regime of water. In recent, due to
the construction of dams and canals, the water volume is reduced and diverted in almost all
sections.

India has about 14,500 km of navigable waterways of rivers, canals, backwaters (Kerala) and
lagoons. At present, the length of 3700 Km of major rivers is navigable by mechanized crafts but
actually utilized length is only about 2000 km. These water bodies are known as national
waterways.
Role of Inland Water Transport in Tourism
Since independence, the share of water transport has shrunk to a large extent. The railways,
roads, and construction of bridges, reduced the role of water transport in passenger traffic due to
its slow pace. Now with few exceptions, they are not used to carry passengers.

It is very slow and not very safe. So it is used for cargo only. Due to siltation, the Patna-Haldia
section has become shallow so large vessels cannot come directly from sea to inland. So it has a
very limited use.
Sea Water Transport
India has approx. 7516 km long coastline, but in most of the sections, it is not ideal for setting
up of ports because it is shallow and coastline is regular (not indented as North-West Europe).
There are 12 major ports directly under the central government and 139 minor ports under state
government.
Seawater transport is very important for India. The volume of export and import is increasing
year by year. With its long coastline and of over 2 million sq. km. of the exclusive economic
zone, India has one of the largest merchant shipping fleet in the world.

The shipping corporation of India is a government-owned shipping company with over ninety
other companies are responsible for shipping operations on Indian shores and overseas. The size
and functions of these operations are increasing everywhere due to the increase in the volume of
foreign trade.

Role of Sea Water Transport in Tourism

Unfortunately, despite its coastal length and several coastal destinations from Dwarka to
Kolkata, Seawater transport for tourism is not very important. The main reason is its slow speed,
e.g. the journey to Port Blair from Kolkata or Chennai takes about 72 hrs. which is too
much for foreigners.
However, passenger traffic by sea is limited to Port Blair from Kolkata and Chennai and Agatti
from Cochin. Earlier Mumbai – Goa, Bhav Nagar – Surat, Cochin – Chennai were popular. But
after the development of railways and roads, they lost their ground. The cruises, which are so
popular in south-east Asia, do not ply due to the lack of standard port facilities.