TOPIC : ROLE OF TRANSPORT SECTOR IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

THE CONTEXT: The present government has focussed on the transport sector with various schemes for improving transportation in India. In this article, we will see how the transport sector can play an important role in a region’s development and what are the lacunae that the Indian transport sector is facing.

COMPONENTS OF INDIAN TRANSPORT SECTOR

The Indian transport system includes different modes such as

• Railways
• Roads
• Air Transport
• Coastal Shipping etc.

HOW TRANSPORT SECTOR INFLUENCES REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Core: The most fundamental impacts of transportation related to the physical capacity to convey passengers and goods and the associated costs to support this mobility. This involves setting routes that enable new or existing interactions between economic entities.
2. Operational : Improvement in the time performance, notably in terms of reliability and reduced loss or damage. This implies a better utilisation level of existing transportation assets benefiting its users as passengers and freight are conveyed more rapidly and with fewer delays.
3. Geographical: Access to a broader market base where economies of scale in production, distribution, and consumption can be improved. Increases in productivity from the access to a larger and more diverse base of inputs (raw materials, parts, energy, or labor) and broader markets for diverse outputs (intermediate and finished goods).

IMPACTS OF TRANSPORT

1. Direct impacts: The outcome of improved capacity and efficiency where transport provides employment, added value, larger markets, and time and costs improvements. The overall demand of an economy is increasing.
2. Indirect impacts: The outcome of improved accessibility and economies of scale. Indirect value-added and jobs result from local purchases by companies directly dependent upon transport activity. For example – office supply firms, equipment and parts suppliers, maintenance and repair services, insurance companies, consulting, and other business services.
3. Induced impacts: The outcome of the economic multiplier effects where the price of commodities, goods, or services drops and their variety increases. For instance, the steel industry requires the cost-efficient import of iron ore and coal for the blast furnaces and export activities for finished products such as steel booms and coils. Manufacturers, retail outlets, and distribution centers handling imported containerised cargo rely on efficient transport and seaport operations.

IMPACT ON DIFFERENT SECTORS

1. Agriculture Sector: It facilitates the connection between topographical and economic regions and creates new areas to commercial focus. It leads to the creation of a market, promotes the distribution of goods, and creates additional opportunities.
2. Industrial Sector: It helps connect industries to each other and to the world markets. Also, this leads to employment generation and dispersal of wealth.
3. Education Sector: A reliable transport sector ensures that students can reach the school premises. This ensures that the student continues his/her education and thus works for the nation’s development.

PROBLEMS FACED BY INDIAN TRANSPORT SECTOR

1. Quality of Road Infrastructure: The majority of Indian highways have two lanes leading to congestion. Roads are of low quality and road maintenance remains underfunded.
2. Rural Areas have Poor Access: The rural road network is extensive still some 33 percent of Indian villages do not have access to all-weather roads and remain cut off during the monsoon season. The problem is more acute in India’s northern and northeastern states, which are poorly linked to the country’s major economic centers.
3. Railway Capacity Constraint: All the country’s high-density rail corridors face severe capacity constraints. Also, freight transportation costs by rail are much higher than in most countries as freight tariffs in India have been kept high to subsidise passenger traffic.
4. Port Congestion: The capacity utilisation in some major ports remains as low as 58-60% as per World bank.
5. Airport Infrastructure: Air traffic has been growing rapidly leading to severe strain on infrastructure at major airports, especially in the Delhi and Mumbai airports which account for more than 40 percent of nation’s air traffic.

THE WAY FORWARD

1. Capacity Building: Government needs to improve the capacity of the transport system by investing in infrastructure.
2. SIMSystem: A SIMSystem promotes interoperability between modes of transport to avoid potentially uncoordinated or conflicting investments, assets, standards, rules and technologies.

SIMSYSTEM EXPLAINED

A SIMSystem promotes interoperability between modes of transport to avoid potentially uncoordinated or conflicting investments, assets, standards, rules and technologies.

Principles of SimSystem:

1. User-centred: The system is designed and operated to meet the collective and individual needs of all the users it serves.
2. Designed to be adaptable: It will adapt to the capabilities and conditions of the place it is deployed in, to the behaviours and needs of its users, and to improvements in technology.
3. Open standards and protocols: The private sector will need to play a leading role in establishing open standards and protocols for the creation of mobility-related data exchanges and application programming interfaces.
4. Public-private collaboration: Governments should act as conveners to increase collaboration within and between governments and the private sector, which will enable a SIMSystem to operate across transport types, geographies and functionalities.
5. Participation and value: Maintaining the ability for the private sector to derive value from their products, services and intellectual property will encourage broad-based participation and enable the full realization of a SIMsystem.
6. Agile governance: Governments should reduce institutional complexity and create more focused governance models, to facilitate agile coordination with the private sector and other governments.
7. Funding and financing: Governments should create innovative funding instruments and business models that enable private-sector actors to underwrite the cost of a SIMSystem and share in the monetary benefits.
8. Performance measurement: Standardized performance indicators should be established to measure the impact of a SIMSystem on accessibility, affordability, sustainability, safety, efficiency and integration.
9. Learning and improvement: An international public-private coalition should be formed and tasked with the frequent sharing of knowledge and best practices across geographies.
10. Scaling and growth: A public-private working group of leaders should be established to define and address fundamental framing decisions and enable SIMSystem pilots in various geographies.

CASE STUDY SHOWING IMPACT OF TRANSPORT SECTOR

A group of tribal belonging to nine different villages came together to construct a ghat road for connecting their hamlet to Vishakhapatnam’s agency area. These people lacked electricity and medical services due to lack of road connectivity. After working tirelessly for 3 weeks, they created a 7km long kutcha road that provide connectivity to certain Eastern ghat habitations. The road has led to reduced deaths in the region as medical services are possible and the youth can go to town for education and employment. The three tribes of Muka Doras, Konda Doras and Kondus have benefited from this.

THE CONCLUSION: Transportation links together the factors of production in a complex web of relationships between producers and consumers. A nation’s growth moves through its roads and thus the best way to increase growth rate is by improving the infrastructure. India needs to learn from China which have gained immensely by investing in its infrastructure.