Chapter 8 – Transport and Communication Questions and Answers: NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Geography: (Fundamentals of Human Geography)

1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below:
(i)
The Trans-Continental Stuart Highway runs between
(a) Darwin and Melbourne
(b) Edmonton and Anchorage
(c) Vancouver and St. John’s City
(d) Chengdu and Lhasa

Answer:
(a) Darwin and Melbourne

(ii)
Which country has the highest density of railway network?
(a) Brazil
(b) U.S.A
(c) Cannada
(d) Russia

Answer:
(b) U.S.A

(iii)
The Big Trunk Route runs through
(a) The Mediterranean – Indian ocean
(b) The North Atlantic Ocean
(c) The South Atlantic Ocean
(d) The North Pacific Ocean

Answer:
(b) The North Atlantic Ocean

(iv)
The Big Inch pipeline transports
(a) Milk
(b) Liquid petroleum gas (LPG)
(c) Water
(d) Petroleum

Answer:
(d) Petroleum

(v)
Which one pair of the following places is linked by Channel Tunnel?
(a) London – Berlin
(b) Paris – London
(c) Berlin-.Paris
(d) Barcelona – Berlin

Answer:
(b) Paris – London

2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words:

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

Answer:
Road transportation depends heavily on the physiography of nature. Mountainous regions: In mountainous regions, irregular terrain makes road construction difficult as cutting through the mountains while construction is not only costly but also dangerous. Also frequent landslides make the roads unfit for use. Desert regions: In desert regions, laying down of roads is not easy as sand does not provide with a strong base for construction of roads. Flood prone regions: In flood prone regions, roads are frequently flooded, hence they cannot be used and remain unfit for use.

(ii)
What is a trans-continental railway?

Answer:
Trans continental railways connect two ends of a continent. They are instrumental in economic life of a country. They were constructed for economic and political reasons to facilitate long runs in different directions. They are essential for transportation of not only passengers but mainly of freight. Example; Trans continental Siberian railways.

(iii)
What are the advantages of water transport?

Answer:
Water, transport is still the main means of transportation for bulky goods over long distances due to its efficiency. One of the great advantages of water transportation is that it does not require route construction. The oceans are linked with each other and are negotiable with ships of various sizes. All that is needed is to provide port facilities at the two ends. It is much cheaper because the friction of water is far less than that of land.

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”.

Answer:
Transport is a service or facility for the carriage of persons and goods from one place to the other using humans, animals and different kinds of vehicles. Such movements take place over land, water and air. The significance of a mode depends on the type of goods and services to be transported, costs of transport and the mode available. International movement of goods is handled by ocean freighters. Road transport is cheaper and faster over short distances and for door- to-door services. Railways are most suited for large volumes of bulky materials over long distances within a country. High-value, light and perishable goods are best moved by airways.
None of the transport system is self-sufficient. For having a well-managed transportation system a proper link between all the modes is essential. Ports are a point of collection of goods carried by waterways; they must have efficient linkage with railways and roadways so that the goods can be taken to interiors. Railways are efficient in connecting far off places but they can’t penetrate deep into interiors or provide door to door service, for that an efficient road system along with transportation facilities like buses etc. should be available.

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

Answer:
Frequent air services are available to many parts of the world. Although, U.K. pioneered the use of commercial jet transport, U.S.A. developed largely postwar international civil aviation. Today, more than 250 commercial airlines offer regular services to different parts of the world. Recent developments can change the future course of air transport. Supersonic aircraft, cover the distance between London and New York within three and a half hours. In the Northern Hemisphere, there is a distinct east-west belt of inter-continental air routes. Dense network exists in Eastern U.S. A. Westen Fur ope and Southeast Asia. U.S.A. alone accounts for 60 per cent 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.

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

Answer:
Human beings have used different methods long-distance communications of which the telegraph and the telephone were important. The telegraph was instrumental in the colonization of the American West. The telephone became a critical factor in the urbanization of America. Even today, the telephone is the most commonly used mode. In developing countries, the use of cell phones, made possible by satellites, is important for rural connectivity. The world soon upgraded their copper cable systems to include optic fiber cables. These allow large quantities of data to be transmitted rapidly, securely, and are virtually error-free. Today internet is the largest electronic network on the planet connecting about 1,000 million people in more than 100 countries.
Artificial satellites, now, are successfully deployed in the earth’s orbit to connect even the remote comers of the globe with limited on-site verification. These have rendered the unit cost and time of communication invariant in terms of distance. Cyberspace is the world of electronic computerized space. It is encompassed by the Internet such as the World Wide Web (www). In simple words, it is the electronic digital world for communicating or accessing information over computer networks without physical movement of the sender and the receiver. It is also referred to as the Internet. Cyberspace exists everywhere. It may be in an office, sailing boat, flying plane and virtually anywhere.
There were less than 50 million Internet users in 1995, about 400 million in 2000 A.D. and over one billion in 2005. The next billion users are to be added by 2010.
As billions use the Internet each year, cyberspace will expand the contemporary economic and social space of humans through e-mail, e-commerce, e-leaning and e-governance. Internet together with fax, television and radio will be accessible to more and more people cutting across place and time. It is these modem communication systems, more than transportation that has made the concept of global village a reality.

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
Define transport.

Answer:
Transport is a service or facility for carriage of persons or goods from one place to another using animals, humans and different kinds of vehicles, which take place over land, water and air.

Question 2.
What is a transport network?

Answer:
When several places (nodes) are joined together by a series of routes (links), it forms a pattern which is referred to as transport network.

Question 3.
When was the first public railway line opened? Which places did it join?

Answer:
The first public railway line was opened in 1825 between Stockton and Darlington in Northern England.

Question 4.
What are the new modes of land transportation?

Answer:
Pipelines, ropeways and cableways are among the newer developments in land transportation.

Question 5.
What are the two categories of roads?

Answer:
Metalled and unmetalled are two categories of roads.

Question 6.
What are highways?

Answer:
Highways are metalled roads connecting distant places for unobstructed vehicular movement, with separate traffic lanes, bridges, flyovers and dual carriage ways.

Question 7.
Name the terminals for the Trans Canadian highway.

Answer:
Vancouver in British Columbia in West to St. John’s city, in Newfoundland in East.

Question 8.
Name the terminals of Trans-continental Stuart highway.

Answer:
Darwin in the North to Melbourne in the South via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs in Australia.

Question 9.
What are border roads?

Answer:
Border roads are roads laid along international boundaries and play an important role in integrating people of the remote areas with the major cities.

Question 10.
Mention the terminal points of South American trans continental railway.

Answer:
From Buenos Aires, Argentina to Valparaiso, Chile across the Andes Mountains through the Uspallatta Pass.

Question 11.
Define trans-continental railways.

Answer:
Trans-continental railways run across the continent and connects it’s two ends.

Question 12.
Which sea route is called the Big Trunk Route?

Answer:
The North Atlantic sea route is called the Big Trunk Route.

Question 13.
When was the Suez canal constructed?

Answer:
The Suez Canal was constructed in 1869, between Port Said and Port Suez.

Question 14.
Name the seas linked by the Suez canal.

Answer:
Mediterranean and Red Seas are connected by the Suez canal.

Question 15.
Panama canal connects which two oceans?

Answer:
Panama canal connects the Atlantic ocean on the East and Pacific ocean on the west.

Question 16.
How is milk supplied from farms to factories in New Zealand?

Answer:
Milk is supplied from farms to factories in New Zealand through pipelines.

Question 17.
What is Big Inch?

Answer:
Big inch is the pipeline which carries petroleum from the oil wells of Gulf of Mexico to the North Eastern states.

Question 18.
When was Aryabhatt, Rohini and Bhaskar-I launched respectively?

Answer:
Aryabhatta-19, April 1979 Rohini-1980 Bhaskar-I-1979

Question 19.
Why does South Africa has rail connectivity?

Answer:
South Africa has rail connectivity due to the concentration of gold, copper and diamond mining.

Question 20.
Name two countries where commuter trains are popular?

Answer:
Commuter trains are popular in the UK, USA, Japan, India, (any 2)

Question 21.
What is the economic significance of the Trans Canadian Railways?

Answer:
It gained economic significance because it connected the Quebec-Montreal industrial region with the wheat belt of the Prairie region, and the Coniferous forest region in the north, thus making each of them complimentary to the other.

Question 22.
Which sea route has reduced the distance between Europe and Asia?

Answer:
Mediterranean-Indian Ocean sea route through the Suez canal has reduced the distance between Europe and Asia.

Question 23.
Which canal has reduced the distance between New York and San Francisco?

Answer:
Panama canal has reduced the distance between New York and San Francisco.

Question 24.
Which animals are used as carriers?

Answer:
Different animals are used in different places as carriers.
Horses are used as a draught animal even in the Western countries.
Dogs and reindeers are used in North America, North Europe and Siberia to draw sledges over snow-covered ground.
Mules are preferred in the mountainous regions; while camels are used for caravan movement in deserts.
In India, bullocks are used for pulling carts.

Question 25.
Which continent has the highest highway density? Give statistics to the fact.

Answer:
In North America, highway density is high, about 0.65 km per sq km. Every place is within 20 km distance from a highway. Cities located on the Pacific coast (west) are well-connected with those of the Atlantic Coast (east).

Question 26.
What.is the objective of under construction Pan-American highway?

Answer:
It will connect the countries of South America, North America and Canada.