COMMUNICATIONS

RURAL TRANSPORT

The facilities of transport in the rural areas were inadequate in the past. The village roads were mostly earthen tracks which were sometimes unusable in the rainy season even for cart traffic. However, during the last two decades considerable progress has been achieved and several schemes of road development are now under way. The construction of link roads is actively engaging the attention of the Government. Under the road development programme of the Five-Year Plans, a number of approach roads are constructed and a greater number of them are proposed.

Amravati district is endowed with better transport facilities than many other districts of Maharashtra.

The Bullock-cart was formerly the only means of transport for passenger traffic as well as for carriage of goods from and to the markets. The bullock-cart also known as chhakda, still continues to be the only conveyance for the cultivators' produce to the markets, even though for purposes of trade, the motor trucks and railways have supplanted all slow-moving traffic through bullock-carts and horses. The statistics of bullock-carts in all the tahsils furnish an evidence of their importance in the rural transport. In July, 1962, the number of bullock-carts was 47,267; the tahsilwise break-up being, 10,926 in Amravati; 9,051 in Chandur; 6,898 in Achalpur; 6,011 in Daryapur; 8,443 in Morshi and 6,938 in Melghat.

A big section of the middle class population uses bicycles. The motor-cycles and scooters have also been in use in rural as well as in urban areas.

On most of the motorable roads private transport companies as well as the State Transport Authorities are plying buses [The Directory of Villages and Towns given at the end of the Volume also gives the nearest bus stand and the nearest railway station to each village and town in the district.]. Towns and villages on most of the highways and major roads are, thus, served by buses. Moreover, approach roads from railway stations have lately been developed, with the result that the problem of rural transport has been eased to a great extent.

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