COMMUNICATIONS

INTRODUCTION

Akola district has comparatively good communications : It is well served by railways as well as roads. The Bombay-Nagpur-Calcutta broad gauge trunk route traverses through the rich fertile tracts in the district. Besides this main line, commercial traffic in the district is served by three branch railway lines, viz, the Khandwa-Akola -Purna route, the Murtixapur-Yeotmal route, and the Murtizapur-Achalpur route. The Khandwa-Akola-Purna line constructed in 1961 provides an important link between the metre gauge railway system in North India and South India thus facilitating a wider net work of transport over the countiy. More so because prior to the construction of" this line there was no connecting link in the metre gauge system in North India and South India. Railways covered a distance of 57 miles in the district in 1910, the same now being about 354 kitometres.

During the early years of this century, there were a few roads which were deficient in probably every respect. Some of the earthen tracts were smoothened and repaired so as to serve as cart tracks. Traffic used to become well-nigh impossible in the rainy season. Very few roads were metalled and bridged. The surface was covered in some places with ballast or coarse gravel and in others with fragments of hardened clay. Very often gravel and clay were mixed so as to make the road passable in rainy season.

At the time of publication of the old Gazetteer of the district, Akot in the north was connected by a metalled road, partially bridged and drained, 28 miles in length, and Washim in the South by a similar road of 51 miles. This southern road was a part of a road to Hingoli, important when British troops were stationed there, and was continued within the district ten miles south of Washim to the Penganga river. Mangrulpir was connected by a partly metalled and partly otherwise surfaced road which ran north-east from Washim to Karanja. an important town in the south of Murtizapur tahsil. The length of this road was 25 miles from Washim to Mangrulpir, 17 miles more to Karanja, and 20 from Karanja to Murtizapur, Balapur was connected with Paras railway station by a district road six miles in length, but there was no bridge on the Bhuikund river which blocked the traffic by a flood for two or three days at a time.

Besides the roads connecting the headquarters of the various tahsils, there were several other made roads passable through out the year. The notable among them were as listed below—

1. Akot to Salu in Melghat tahsil—9 miles in this district;

2. Akot to Shegaon—25 miles in the district;

3. Khamgaon to Palur— 23 miles in the district,

4. Washim to Pusad —17 miles in the district;

5. Karanja to Darwha: and

6. Murtizapur to Daryapur.

These roads were under the Public Works Department and were either metalled or surfaced with murum or similar material. None of them was bridged and drained throughout. They were passable throughout the year except for interruption-at rivers and nallas.

The Jalna-Nagpur dak line ran across the south-east of the district, passing from Mehkar in Buldhana across the north of Washim and Mangrulpir tahsils, through Karanja, from where one branch proceeded north-east through Dhanaj to Amravati and another due east into Chandur tahsil in Amravati district. It was also under charge of the Public Works Department and was not maintained properly.

A characteristic of the great metalled roads noted above was that they were straight; they bent to secure an alignment along a water-shed and to pass near a large village but scarcely for any other reason. They were purposely laid out so as not actually to pass through ordinary villages on account of the expenses and difficulty involved in maintaining a road there. They were shaded in part.

After 1910 the British Government took some measures to improve the condition of roads in the District. [ Details of measures are not known.] However road development in the true sense received attention of Government only during the planning era beginning with 1951. The Five Year Plans laid emphasis on improvement and construction of new roads and allotted sizeable funds for the same.

At present this district has comparatively a better road transport system. The Bombay-Nagpur-Calcutta national highway passes through this district and covers a length of about 104 km

There are State highways and other major roads which serve the needs of traffic of all commercial centres, towns and big villages. The neighbouring districts and important cities in the State are connected with Akola by good roads. There were 54.48 miles of roads per one lakh of population in the district whereas road mileage per square mile was 0.16 at the end of 1966-67. The following statement gives information about the number of villages connected by pucca roads in the district.

Number of villages and towns connected by roads (District Akola), 1961. [The Census Handbook of Akola District, 1961.].

It will thus be seen that less than 20 per cent of the villages of each tahsil were connected by roads as at the end of March 1961. Murtizapur tahsil, having the lowest percentage of 11.7.

The following table gives the statistics of roads in the district

TABLE No. 1

Road length according to category and surface classification in Akola District as on 31st March 1973 [Bureau of Economics and Statistics, Government of Maharashtra.]

(Length in Km.)

The passenger motor transport services in the district till 1963 were operated by a number of individual private operators and were operated largely with profit motive without regard to the passenger's comfort. To meet this situation and the growing transport needs Government stepped in by creating a semi-autonomous organisation known later as the Provincial Transport Services and then as the State Transport Corporation (from March 1963). This process of nationalisation of passenger transport services is progressing in accordance with a phased programme and the coverage has been expanding steadily.

TOP