Travelling in India

By Air: In the recent year, with the coming up of many private airlines, volume of air traffic has increased manifolds in India. For long, this sector of transportation was considered to be bastion of elite class people, however the arrival of new private airlines and competition among them to woo passengers, has considerably reduced the airfare. Today large number of people travel within the country by using air travel. This has led to the increase in the number of airports across the country. There are many domestic airports spread across the country. There is large scale moment of inter city air services. Such has been expansion of air service that, even the remotest part of country like Ladakh and North-East region can be accessed by air service.

There are around 65 domestic airports spread all over the country. Most of them are well equipped with all the basic modern facilities. Also, India has excellent connectivity with the rest of world through air route. There are altogether 12 international airports in the country. Of them Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are the major one. While Mumbai has been traditionally the busiest airport, in the recent past Delhi has overtaken it. All the four airports have direct flight operating to different part of the world. Apart from these four, Bangalore and Hyderabad airport also cater to the needs of large number of international air travelers. All the major airlines of world like British Airways, Air Canada, Air France, Cathay Pacific airways, etc operate flights to and pro from India.

Among Indian airlines operators, Jet airways and Air India operate flights to almost all the major cities of the world. In those area where big airlines cannot operate, Pawan Hans helicopter services are provided. Specially in the north-eastern states these service are very popular and is extensively used by the public.

By Rail: India has the second largest rail network system in the world. Railways are the very lifeline of this country. Everyday it carries millions of passenger to various destinations. Railways cover almost every part of the country including the most interior part. Achieving huge success in the past year Indian railways has even started train services to mountainous state of Jammu and Kashmir. On a daily basis railways operate around 11,000 thousand trains including 7,000 passenger train.

Indian railways has gone through complete transformation in the last decade. Many new trains have been added which include luxurious one like Rajdhani and Shatabdi. These train are as good as any other train in the world. Most of the passenger trains of India offer reasonably good facilities. There is separate air condition and non air condition coaches in the train. There speed have to be increased by the use of modern technologies. Indian railways has also upgraded the ticketing system. Nowadays one can buy ticket from any part of the world by Internet booking. There is also provisions to purchase ticket through mobile. Railways also provide emergency ticket booking facilities known as “Tatkal service”. You can book ticket three days before journey by availing this service. Best thing about Indian railways is that tickets are priced quite reasonably. Railways can be best mode of transportation for a vacation to India.

By Road : Indian roadways are one of the largest road networks in the world. Road transport is very essential for both goods and passenger movement. There are good number of national highways, state highways, district and village roads spread over the vast part of country. It covers the total length of around 33,00,000 km. In the coming year importance of road transportation are going to increase manifold. National highways which only comprise of 2% road network is the lifeline of road transport. Almost 40% of passenger and freight are carried through national highways. National highways cover around 52000 km and passes all the state of India. All the major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata are linked through national highways.

Altogether there are 259 national highways in India. Many interstate bus services are run by the government and private parties. These luxury buses are quite comfortable for the journey. Taxi service too are run in the interstate route. Within the inter city road transport, there are many options like taxis, buses, autos and rickshaws. On most occasion buses within inter city are very crowded and it is better to avoid them. But these bus service are very cheap. In some cities like Delhi and Kolkata, Metro service are also good options of inter city transportation.