COMMUNICATIONS

RURAL TRANSPORT

The facilities of transport in the rural areas were very inadequate in the past. The village roads were mostly earthen tracks which were not usable 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 have been constructed and a greater number of them are proposed.

The bullock-cart was formerly the only means of transport for passenger traffic as well as carriage of goods from and to the markets. The bullock-cart also known as chhakda, still continues to be the principal 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.

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 this 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 inadequacy of rural transport has been mitigated to some extent.

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