Ch08 Transport - Solutions

 CBSE Class 12 Geography

NCERT Solutions
Chapter 8
Transport and Communication

1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below.

(i) The Trans-Continental Stuart Highway runs between

  1. Darwin and Melbourne
  2. Edmonton and Anchorage
  3. Vancouver and St. John's City
  4. Chengdu and Lhasa

Ans. (1) Darwin and Melbourne

(ii) Which country has the highest density of railway network?

  1. Brazil
  2. U.S.A.
  3. Canada
  4. Russia

Ans. (2) U.S.A.

(iii) The Big Trunk Route runs through

  1. The Mediterranean-Indian ocean
  2. The North Atlantic Ocean
  3. The South Atlantic Ocean
  4. The North Pacific Ocean

Ans. (2) The North Atlantic Ocean

(iv) The Big Inch pipeline transports

  1. Milk
  2. Liquid petroleum gas (LPG)
  3. Water
  4. Petroleum

Ans. (4) Petroleum

(v) Which one pair of the following places is linked by Channel Tunnel?

  1. London-Berlin
  2. Paris-London
  3. Berlin-Paris
  4. Barcelona-Berlin

Ans. (2) Paris-London

2. Answer the following question in about 30 words.

(i) What are the problems of road transport in mountainous, desert and flood prone regions?

Ans. The problems of road transport in mountainous, desert and floor prone regions are explained below:

  1. It is difficult to construct roads in mountainous regions. It is expensive to construct and maintain roads in these areas. Due to earthquake and landslides, roads get damaged and heavy expenditure has to be incurred for their maintenance.
  2. In deserts, constructing roads is difficult due to dusty soil.
  3. In flood prone areas roads get badly damaged and have to be reconstructed year by year.

(ii) What is a trans-continental railway?

Ans. A transcontinental railway is a contagious network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies along a continuous route.

Transcontinental railroads helped open up unpopulated interior regions of continents to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible. In many cases they also formed the backbones of cross-country passenger and freight transportation networks.

(iii) What are the advantages of water transport?

Ans. There are many advantages of water transport:

1. Low Cost: Rivers are a natural highway which does not require any cost of construction and maintenance. Even the cost of construction and maintenance of canals is much less or they are used, not only for transport purposes but also for irrigation, etc. Moreover, the cost of operation of the inland water transport is very low. Thus, it is the cheapest mode of transport for carrying goods from one place to another.

2. Larger Capacity: It can carry much larger quantities of heavy and bulky goods such as coal, and, timber etc. 3. Flexible Service: It provides much more flexible service than railways and can be adjusted to individual requirements. 4. Safety: The risks of accidents and breakdowns, in this form of transport, are minimum as compared to any other form of transport.

3. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words.

(i) Elucidate the statement- "In a well-managed transport system, various modes complement each other".

Ans.Different modes of transportation are not competitive but complementary in nature. All of them have their own importance in specific situations. It can be understood by some examples:

  1. When heavy machinery is to be imported from other countries then no other means of transportation can be as helpful as water transport.
  2. When urgent telegrams are to be delivered abroad, then air transport is most useful.
  3. If a middle class person wants to visit his family at a distant place within his own country, the uses of railways are most suitable. Even when raw material is to be transported from distant place railways play a major role.
  4. No matter which modes of transport we use in the middle stage but from your doorstep to your destination there is only road transport which can help you. Ultimately once we get down from train or aeroplane or ship we make use of road transport to reach our final destination.
  5. When light weight high value goods are to be delivered then air transport proves better than others.
  6. Similarly for crossing mountains trolley is most suitable. Road and railways are nowhere successful in this scenario.
  7. Anything for which door to door service is required only road transport can be used.
  8. If liquefied petroleum or other liquids are to be transported then pipelines prove better than all other means of transport.
    Therefore, it may be concluded that different modes of transport are not competitive but complementary to each other.

(ii) Which are the major regions of the world having a dense network of airways?

Ans. In the northern hemisphere, there is distinct east west belt of intercontinental air routes. Dense networks exist in Eastern USA, Western Europe and South East Asia.

  1. The USA alone accounts for 60% of the airways of the world. New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt Rome, Moscow, Karachi, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago are the nodal points where air routes converge or radiate to all continents.
  2. Africa, Asiatic part of Russia and South America are lacking in air services. Between 10 to 35 latitude in southern hemisphere, air services are lacking due to:
    • Sparser population;
    • Limited landmass and
    • Economic development
  3. At present, no pace in the world is more than 35 hours away. This startling fact has been made possible due to people who build any fly airplanes.
  4. Today more than 250 commercial airlines offer regular services to different parts of the world.
  5. Recent development can change the future course of air transport. Supersonic aircraft cover the distance between London and New York within three and a half hours.

(iii) What are the modes by which cyber space will expand the contemporary economic and social space of humans?

Ans. The modes by which cyber space will expand the contemporary economic and social spaces of humans are e-mail, e-commerce, e-learning and e-governance.

(i)E-mail- It is a method of exchanging messages between people using electronics. Email has been widely accepted by business, governments and non-governmental organizations in the developed world, and it is one of the key parts of an 'e-revolution' in workplace communication.E-mail by its nature creates a detailed written record of the communication, the identity of the sender(s) and recipient(s) and the date and time the message was sent. In the event of a contract or legal dispute, saved emails can be used to prove that an individual was advised of certain issues, as each email has the date and time recorded on it.

(ii) E-commerce-It is a transaction of buying or selling online. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic fund transfer, supply chain management, internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, inventory management system, and automated data collection system.

(iii) E-learning- It is a learning environment which uses information and communication technologies as a platform for teaching and learning activities. E-learning has its root in distance learning and is part of the revolution brought by the new media: the Web. Educators and trainers soon found the potentials to advance learning at the advent of the new Web technologies. The advocates of e-learning voice for the breakdown of barriers to learning (especially for adult learners in higher education) such as the limitations in time and distance. Research on media comparison "proves" that there is no difference in the learning outcome of e-learning from traditional face-to-face instruction. Over time, more and more instructors/institutions are incorporating e-learning components in the practice of instruction in higher education as a way of facilitating learning.

(iv) E-governance- It is the application of information and communication technology for delivering government services, exchange of information,communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems and services between government-to-customer (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government (G2G) as well as back office processes and interaction within the entire government framework.Through e-governance, government services will be made available to citizens in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner. The three main target groups that can be distinguished in governance concepts are government, citizens and businesses/interest groups.