Transportation and Communication

Road

Road Network

• The road network plays a pivotal role in the development of the economy of any region. It opens up ample opportunity by connecting rural areas to the nearest urban or semi-urban centres, provides access to the market and helps to promote economic activity.
• These road network comprises roads of different width – single (3.75 m), intermediate (5.5 m), double (7.0 m) and multiple lanes (more than 7.0 m). For the National Highways (NH), only 10 percent of the road network is either single or intermediate lane. The remaining 90 percent of the NH network is either double or multiple lane roads.

Road Transport

• The road transport is the main lifeline of transportation in any region, including Bihar. It accounts for substantial proportion of the services to move goods and passengers. For manufacturing units, it helps to bring a majority of inputs from their sources and then to send the output to the market.
• It is noteworthy that Bihar has recorded the third highest vehicles registration in transport category after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra; however, it is at the seventh position with respect to non-transport vehicle.

Major District Roads (MDR)

• The Major District Roads (MDR) connect remote places to National Highways, State Highways, and areas of production, district level markets and adjacent MDR.
• The MDR in the state has a length of 15,637 kms of MDR length and their width as on September, 2022. The maximum part of MDR is of intermediate width (5.50 meter), which accounts for about 47 percent total MDR in the state.
• The share of single lane (3.05 m 3.75 m) MDR is 35 percent and the rest is double or multiple lanes road. Presently, the State government is making efforts to upgrade single lane roads to intermediate lane standard.
• The expansion of MDR benefitted many of the districts, and the most benefitted districts on this account are – Patna (461 kms), followed by Jamui (377 kms) and Gaya (375 kms).
• The total road length of MDR is continuously increasing, though all the districts are not benefitted equally.
• Till September 2022, the three top districts in terms of MDR network are – Patna (1023 kms), Gaya (999 kms) and Darbhanga (790 kms). These three districts together account for 18 percent of the total MDRnetwork in the state.

Rural Roads

• The rural roads provide ample opportunities to the rural economy by connecting villages with urban markets, through NH, SH and MDR. It also connects farm sector to non-farm sector so that the potential of forward and backward linkages of the agricultural sector is realised.
• A total of 65,576 kms of rural road have been sanctioned for the state under the PMGSY-I and II and RCPLWEA till December, 2022.
• This constituted about 8.2 percent of total PMGSY rural road at all-India (7,98,739 kms). The State government has successfully constructed 56,580 kms of rural road under this scheme and the remaining work is under progress.

Railway

• Heavy industries, major cities and large markets are linked by rail route network. The railways also provides a less costly mode of transport for both goods and passengers.
• The GSDP from railways sector registered an annual growth of 6.6 percent during 2016-17 to 2021-22 in the state. It is heartening to note that the railways recorded a positive growth of 3.1 percent even during the covid year (2020-21).
• The contribution of railways in overall transport sector is nearly 20 percent during 2021-22.
• The share of Bihar in all-India remained almost stagnant at around 5.6 percent, with negligible increase of only 9 RKMs between Darbhanga and Thalwara during 2021 (Covid year). The maximum increase (188 kms) was registered during the period 2005-10, followed by 142 kms during 2015-20.
• Among major states of India, the highest increase in terms of rail route length was registered in Jharkhand (632 kms), followed by Karnataka (590 kms), Bihar and Odisha (423 kms each).
• In aggregate, a total of4638 kms of additional routes have been created during the period 2005-2021. A total of 147 kms of rail route has been added at the country level during 2021.
• Indian Railway is organised into 18 Zones, out of which the Zonal Headquarter of one zone, i.e., East Central Railway, is at Hajipur in Bihar.
• -The headquarters of the East Central Region (ECR) of the railway is located at Hajipur, Vaishali.

Airways

• Aviation plays an important role in economic growth and facilitates the advancement of business and commerce in any economy. The airways sector in the state is one of the fastest growing sectors.
• The airways sector grew from Rs. 31 crore in 2011-12 to Rs. 252 crore in 2021-22, recording an increase of more than 8 times. It recovered from a slowdown during Covid (2020-21) by registering an impressive growth of nearly 55 percent during 2021-22 over previous year.
• The Patna airport has been continuously improving its ASQ Index and its ranking from 233 in 2020 has improved to 71 in 2022.
• The airport at Patna has served nearly 2 crore passengers during the last five years (2017-18 to 2021-22) and carried more than 45 thousand tonnes of freight during the same period.

Water Ways

• Since historical times, water transport has been a chief means of transport in Bihar.
• River Ganga flows through the central part of Bihar which is used for navigation purposes.
• National Waterway-I (NW-1), which connects Allababad to Haldia, passes through Bihar. Steamer service is available at Barrighat near Bhagalpur.
• Arrah Canal which has been taken from Western Son Canal is used for navigation purposes. Ghaghra, Gandak, Burhi Gandak and Kosi are also navigable to some extent in Bihar.
• To ensure safety in boating, Bihar Model Boat Rules, 2011 have been notified.
• Mukhya Mantri Setu Nirman Yojana was launched in 2006 with the objective of providing bridges for all weather road connectivity.

Tele Communication

• The Indian telecom sector has registered a phenomenal growth during the recent, past and has the second largest telephone network in the world, next to China.
• The increase of tele density has mainly been driven by the increase in mobile phones.
• The majority of investment over the decade has come from the private sector.
• Bihar has also registered a tremendous growth in the telecom sector during the last decade. The private players covered almost 96% of telephone connections in Bihar.

Television

• In Bihar, 1st television station was set-up in 1978 at Muzaffarpur.
• In 1980, another station was setup at Patna.
• Important television centres in Bihar are Patna, Katihar and Muzaffarpur.

Radio

• Bihar’s first radio station was set-up at Patna in 1948.
• It was the first radio station of India after independence. It was inaugurated by Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.
• Radio stations are located at many cities like Darbhanga, Bhagalpur, Sasaram, Patna and Purnea.

Postal Network

• The Indian postal network is the largest network in the world, which is also one of the oldest communication systems having 1.56 lakh post offices. The Postal Department has developed a mobile based application called ‘Postman Mobile Application’ (PMA) to meet the demands of customers for providing real-time delivery status of postal articles – Speed Post, Registered Letters, Parcels, Money Order and Cash on Delivery (COD), parcels etc.
• On that day, Bihar has a total of 9302 post offices of which 95 percent (8850) are located in rural areas and the rest 5 percent (452 offices) in urban areas.