Kerala Transport

The transport and communications infrastructure of Kerala is fairly well-developed. The year 1988-89 witnessed further improvements in the existing facilities. The total road length in the state increased by 2286 km. from 118195 km. to 120481 km. The length of surfaced roads in the state comprised 23785 km. Kerala has a road length of 310 km. per hundred sq.k.m. of area and 472 kms per lakh of population (1981) census)But according to the projected population of 1989 the road length per lakh of population in the state works out to 411km. during the year.

The number of motor vehicles registered in the state stood at 5.23 lakh in 1988-89, as against 4.74 lakhs in 1987-88, registering an increase of 10.3 per cent. Kerala had 2056 vehicles per lakh of population (1981 census) and 1347 vehicles per hundred sq.km. of area during the year.
But as per the projected population of 1989, the number of vehicles per lakh of population in Kerala would be only 1786. The passenger transport operations in the state are carried out both by the public sector and private sector simultaneously. The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation is the only public sector agency in the state which undertakes passenger transport operations. It owns only 23 per cent of the total state carriages in the state. Goods transport is the monopoly of the private sector.
The total route length of Railways in the state, comprising 828 km. broadguage and 113 km.metregauge is very low when compared to other states in the country. Air traffic in the state is operated from Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut Airports. International flights to Gulf Countries Colombo and Male, are also operated from Trivandrum.
State Water Transport Department (STWD), Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINCO) and the Water Transport Wing of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) are the three public sector agencies engaged in the Inland Water Transport in the state. Passenger traffic is handled by SWTD and KSRTC whereas cargo traffic is mainly handled by KSINCO. Area of operation of SWTD is centered around the water logged parts of Quilon, Pathan-amthitta, Alleppey, Kottayam and Ernakulam District. Both KSRTC and KSINCO operate boat services in and around Cochin. The three agencies together carried 259.5 lakh passengers and 1.92 lakh tonnes persons were employed in these three organisations during the year.
Total quantity of cargo handled at the intermediate and minor ports increased to 3.04 lakhs tonnes compared to 0.83 lakhs tonnes in 1988, which showed a record increase of 36, per cent. The revenue earnings of the intermediate and minor ports of Kerala also increased by 71.4 per cent. The number of steamers and sailing vessels which called at the intermediate and minor ports, increased by 4.4 per cent and registered tonnage of steamers and sailing vessels increased by 140 per cent. Out of the total cargo handled at the intermediate and minor ports 44.6 per cent was handled at Calicut port alone. This was due to the larger quantity of import of food grains through this port.

The number of post offices remained the same (4782) during 1988-89 as in the previous year. Average area and population served by a post office in Kerala stood at 8.15 sq.km. and 6157 persons respectively.
Kerala Telecom Circle has 623 telephone exchanges spread over the ten secondary switching areas. Total number of working connections increased to 2.09 lakh numbers during the year 1988-89, from 1.85 lakh numbers in the previous year registering a growth of 13 per cent.

ROADS
The state has a total road net work of 1,20,481 km. which is maintained by various departments/agencies such as National Highways, Public Works Department, Municipalities, City Corporations, Panchayats, Kerala State Electricity Board, Forest etc. of this, the Public Works Department maintains a road length of 19,815 km. The total length of black topped/mettaled roads in the state is only 23,119 km. The total length of National Highways remained at 842 km. as in the previous year. Out of this, National Highway 47 comprised 417 km. NH. 47A, 6km and N.H. 17,419 km. The road length, under Public Works Depare-ment, Panchayats and Corporations/ Municipalities showed an increase of 7 km 1803 km. and 278 km. respectively, during 1988-89 compared to the corresponding road lengths in the previous year.
The black topped and cement concrete roads constitute only 84 percent of the total length of roads maintained by the Public Works Department.

The Public Works Department developed/improved 400 kms. of roads in the year 1988-89. The Department also took over 28 village roads with a total length of 142 km in the same year.
The Public Works Department has fifteen Divisions which are mainly concerned with road development in the state. Of these, Kottayam Division has the maximum road length viz. 1975 km. About 92 per cent of this is black topped and cement concrete. The Trivandrum Division ranks second with a road length of 1698 km; about 92 percent of this is black topped. Wayanad Division ranks the lowest in terms of road length with 582 km.
The length of Panchayat roads in the state is nearly 92,104 kms as at the end of the year 1988-89. The length of black-topped/mettalled, earthern and gravelled roads are 6455 km, 52, 973 km., and 32,676 kms respectively. The district-wise analysis of roads maintained by the Panchayats in the state showed that Quilon district occupies the top position in terms of road length (13737 km.) maintained by Panchayats, whereas, Wayanad district is at the bottom of the table with 2428 km.

The state government had launched a programme viz. M.L.A. Road Programme (Two roads programme) in 1983-84. Under this programme, 279 works were taken up. The works include construction of 278 numbers of roads covering a length of 1627 km. and a bridge. The total cost of these works is estimated at Rs. 64 crores. Expenditure till the end of March 1989 amounted to Rs. 35 crores. At the end of the year 1988-89, 94 works were completed and 136 were in progress. Work on remaining 49 works is to be taken up.

Road Accidents
The number of Road accidents cause by different types of vehicles in the state increased to 14933 in 1988-89, some 13081 in the previous year, registering an increase of 14 per cent. The number of persons injured during 1988-89 also showed an increase (11%) to 20098 from 18111 in the proceeding year. While the fatal cases stood at 1587 in 1987-88 it went up to 1604 during 1988-89, registering an increase of 1.07 per cent. The statistics relating to primary cause of accidents reveal that 91.5 percent was caused due to the fault of the driver.

Road Transport
The Road Transport Corporation in the state are carried out both by public sector and private sector. The Kerala State Road Transport Corperations is the only public sector agency which handles passenger trransport operations in the state. But the private sector plays a predominent role both in passenger and goods transport operations. The goods transport by road is more or less the monopoly of the private sector.
The total number of motor vehicles registered in the state stood at 5.23 lakhs in 1988-89 as against 4.74 in 1987-88; an increase of 10.3 per cent. The density of motorr vehicles in ker-ala is high when compared to many other states in India. Kerala had 1861 vehicles per lakh of population (1981 census) and 1219 vehicles per hun-dered sq.km. of area in 1987-88. The corresponding All India figures are 1968 and 410. In 1988-89 Kerala had 2056 vehicles per lakh of population (1981 census) and 1347 vehicles per hundred sq.km. of area. But as per the projected population of 1989, the number of vehicles per lakh of population in Kerala comes to only 1786.
A category-wise analysis of motor vehicles having valid registration in the state during 1988-89 reveals that about 41 percent were scooters/motor cycles followed by cars, station wagons including taxi cars and jeeps. Out of the 5,23, 343 vehicles, 2,13,849 (41 per cent (were scooters) motor cycles, 1,69,094 (32 per cent) cars, station wagons including taxi cars and jeeps, 52,528 (11 per cent) goods vehicles, 62,838 (12 per cent) other vehicles and 19,034 (4 per cent) buses in the year under review. Ernakulam district ranks first followed by Tri-vandrum, while Wayanad District has the lowest number of vehicles having valid registration.
The number of new registration of motor vehicles in the state during 1988-89 at 45, 815 as against 52,003 in 1987-88, registering a decline of 11.89 per cent. At the end of 1988-89, the newly registered vehicles in the state consisted of 26,656 (58 per cent) scooters/motorcycles, 8619 (19 per cent) cars, station wagons including taxi, cars and jeeps, 2906 (6 per cent) goods vehicles, 1309 (3 per cent) buses and 6325 (14 per cent) other vehicles. In respect of registration of new vehicles, Er-nakulam district ranked first (8669 Nos.) followed by Trichur (6095 Nos.) Wayanad district held the lowest rank (503 Nos.).
During 1988-89 the Regional Transport Authorities issued 3,975 temporary and 375 pucka stage carriage permits. Under the National permits scheme, 2771 permits were issued.
The total revenue collected under the Kerala Motor Vehicles Act and Rules by way of taxes and fees amounted to Rs. 62.85 crore in 1988-89, as against Rs. 55.19 crore in 1987-88 showing an increase of 13.88, percent. The cumulative arrears of tax under the Motor Vehicle Act for the private sector as on 31-1-1989 stood at Rs. 1.52 crore. In the Public sector, the main defaulter is KSRTC, which alone had to remit Rs. 39.30 during 1988-89.

Passenger Transport
The passenger transport operations in the state are carried out both by the public sector and private sector. During the year 1988-89 the stage carriage under public sector accounted for 23 per cent, same as that in the previous year. The corresponding share of the public sector vehicles in the neighbouring states in 1987-88, is Tamil Nadu 44 per cent, Karnataka 40 per cent and Andhra Pradesh 98 per cent.
The statistics relating to the number of stage carriages in the state, according to the Transport Commis-sonor's Office, showed an increase from 13,741 during 1987-88 to 14,432 in 1988-89. It is evident that the private sector plays a dominant role in regard to stage carriages in Kerala. The private sector in the northern districts plays a major role in the passenger transport operations.

Passenger Transport under Public Sector - KSRTC
The fleet strength of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation consisted of 3240 vehicles in 1988-89 as against 3219 in 1987-88, registering a growth of 0.65 per cent. The corporation disposed of 329 buses in the year under review as against 129 in the preceding year. The Corporation added 413 and 329 buses respective to its fleet in these two years. The number of schedules operated by the Corporation increased to 2888 during 1988-89, as against 2840 in 1987-88, showing an increase of 1.69 per cent, as against 1.02 in 1987-88. The Corporation operated in 3865 routes with a route distance of 1.73 lakh km. during the year under review. But the corresponding figures for 1987-88 stood at 3839 and 1.72 lakh km. The total number of passengers carried by the fleet of the Corporation stood at 8545 lakhs in 1988-89, as against 8181 lakhs in 1987-88 showing an increase of 4.45 per cent.
In the case of unit-wise distribution KSRTC, Trivandrum district topped with 13 units and 1116 buses, which accounted for 34 percent of the total number of buses held by the Corporation. Alleppey district ranked second with 313 buses and Kasara-god district unit had the lowest number with 26 buses.
The gross revenue earnings of the Corporation showed an increases of 16.99 per cent, from Rs. 127.28 crores in 1987-88 to Rs. 148.90 crores in 1988-89. The student passengers accounted for 6.85 per cent of the total passengers during the year under report. The total number of student passengers is estimated as 585.91 lakhs.
The average earnings per passenger increased by 12.4 per cent, viz. from 152 paise in 1987-88 to 170.9 paise in 1988-89. The average earnings per km. of buses operated had gone upto 4.60 paise from 420 paise, registering an increase of 11.59 per cent. The earnings per vehicle on road per day had also registered an increase. The figures are Rs.1508 in 1988-89 and Rs. 1332 in 1987-88 (13.12 per cent).
The gross revenue expenditure of the Corporation had gone up to Rs. 172.05 crores in 1988-89 from Rs.141.28 crores in 1987-88 showing an increase of 21.78 per cent. Out of the total expenditure of Rs. 172.05 crores in 1988-89 expenditure on staff accounted for Rs.88.43 crores (51.40 per cent) Rs.21.86 crores (12.71 per cent) for repairs and maintainenance Rs.31.99 crores (18.59 per cent) for fuel and Rs.29.77 crores (17.30 crores) for other expenditure. The percentage of fuel and other expenses had come down from 21.64 and 19.41 respectively in 1987-88 to 18.59 and 17.30 in 1988-89, while the gross revenue earnings of the Corporation increased by the 17 per cent, the gross revenue expenditure went up by 22 per cent during 1988-89, compared to the preceding year.
The statistics relating to the profit/ loss of the Corporation reveals that the Corporation incurred a loss of Rs. 23.15 crores during the year under review, as against the loss of Rs. 14 crores in the previous year. The accumulated loss of the Corporation went up to Rs. 123.73 crore in 1988-89.
As regards capital investment since the inception of the KSRTC, the Government of Kerala contributed Rs. 43.82 crore and the Government of India shares Rs. 17.84 crores till the end of 1988-89. Loans totaling to Rs. 74.67 crore were outstanding during 1988-89 of which loan from Government of Kerala, LIC and IDBI amounted to Rs. 28.48 crore, Rs.14.01 crore and Rs. 32.18 crores respectively.
The performance efficiency and productivity of all road transport corporations depend on age and composition of the fleet, staff productivity, fleet utilisation etc. The percentage of overaged fleet in utilisation etc. The percentage of overaged fleet in KSRTC in 1988-89 stood at 40.10. Utilisation of overaged fleet together with large number of breakdowns, frequent cancellations of scheduled trips affect the operational efficiency and vehicle productivity. The fleet utilisation of KSRTC showed a marginal decrease when compared to the all India level. It is estimated that the fleet utilisation was about 85 percent in KSRTC in 1988-89 (The All India estimated average during 1986-87 was 85.50 per cent).
The large proportion of overaged buses held by KSRTC is the major reason for the low percentage of fleet utilisation. The number of overaged buses in KSRTC was nearly 1300 in 1988-89. The other factors which contribute to the efficiency are staff productivity and cost per worker per day. The staff productivity of KSRTC stood at 26 km in 1988-89 as against the All India estimated average of 32.5 km. The staff cost per worker per day in KSRTC showed an increase to Rs.80 in 1988-89 from Rs. 52.47 in 1987-88. This is due to the payment of arrears of the last pay revison on 2-2-1987.
A declining trend is noted in the staff-bus ratio of KSRTC in the year under review. It has come down to 9.30 persons per bus during 1988-89 from 9.44 in 1987-88.

Railways
The three Railway Divisions, viz., Trivandrum Palghat, and Madurai cover the entire network of rail route in the state. The total route length of railways in the state comes to about 941 km. comprising 828 km. broa-dguage and 113 km. metre-gauge. The Trivandrum Division introduced three Express train services viz. Indore-Cochin Express, cochin-Patna Express and Cochin-Varanasi Express. The extended train services are: Banglore-Trivandrum (extended to Nagercoil), Trivandrum-Ahmedabad (extended to Rajkot) and TrivandrumNagercoil passenger (extended to Kanyakumari)
The Ernakulam-Alleppey railway line was opened for traffic on 15-10-1989. Regarding the Kayamkulam-Alleppey line, nearly 43 per cent of the work ws completed by the end of February 1990. The entire route is expected to be completed by June 1991. The estimated cost of the work is Rs. 35 crore. In the case of Trichur-Gu-ruvayur line, 18 per cent of the work was over by the end of February 1990. The estimated cost of the work is reckoned at Rs. 17 crore.
There are 68 railway stations under Trivandrum Division comprising 42 block stations and 26 half/flag stations. The passengers originated from the stations under Trivandrum Division declined to 309 lakhs in 1988-89, compared to 370 lakhs during 1987-88. The number of wagons loaded at different stations under Trivandrum Division showed an increase from 1.49 lakhs in 1987-88 to 1.70 lakhs in 1988-89, whereas the wagons received in the division had declined from 1.25 lakhs in 1987-88 to 1.08 lakhs in 1988-89.

Air Transport
The two major agencies which undertake air transport operations in the State are Air India and Indian Airlines. Indian Airlines operates services from Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut to the major cities in the country. Besides, it undertakes two international services to Colombo and Male. Air India operates services from Trivandrum Airport to the Gulf countries. Recently Trivandrum Airport has been raised to the status of an International Airport.
The number of passengers originated from Trivandrum, Cochin and Calitcut Airports showed an increase of 6.6 per cent during 1988-89 comared to the preceding year. The actual number of passengers originated had increased from 3.29 lakhs in 1987-88 to 3.51 lakhs during the year under review. The passengers terminating from these Airports also went upto 3.71 lakhs in 1988-89 from 3.54 lakhs in the preceding year registering an increase of 4.6 per cent.
The number of passports issued in the state went up from 1.49 lakhs in 1987-88 to 2.08 lakhs in 1988-89, registering an increase of 39.6 per cent.

Inland Water Transport
The State Water Transport Department (SWTD), Kerala Shipping and Indian Navigation Corporation (KSINCO) and the Water Transport Wing of Kerala State Road Transport' Corporation (KSRTC) are three agencies which perform the entire inland water transport operations in the State. Passenger traffic is mainly handled by SWTD and KSRTC. Major portion of cargo traffic is handled by KSINCO. The SWTD operates boat services in the Water-logged areas in five districts vir., Quilon, Pathanamthitta, Alleppey, Kottayam and Ernakulam. Both KSRTC and KSINCO operate boat services in an around Cochin. The three agencies together carried 259.5 lakh passengers and 1.92 lakh tonnes of cargo during 1988-89. A total number of 1611 persons were employed in these three organisations.

State Water Transport Department
A separate department for Water Transport was formed in the year 1968. The activity of the department is to conduct boat services in the inland waterways of Quilon, Alleppey, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Ernakulam Districts. During 1988-89, the Department operated 54 schedules through 87 routes covering a total route distance of 7345 kms.
The Water Transport Department owned 79 boats during 1988-89, as against 76 in the previous year. Out of the 79 boats are over-aged, more than 20 years, and only 51 boats are in good condition. There is a scheme "Augumentation of ferry services" for replacing all old vessels in a phased manner. The department is now constructing new boats to improve the fleet strength and for replacing the unserviceable ones.
Total number of passengers carried and total quantity of cargo handled by the boats owned by the SWT Department were 12, 8, 69, 330 persons , and 3,506 tonnes respectively during the year 1988-89 against 1,2,2, 84,003 persons and 4,052 tonnes in 1987-88. Compared with the previous year's achievements, there has been a 4.76 per cent increase in passenger traffic, but the goods traffic declined by 13.47 per cent. Total revenue earnings stood at Rs. 141.11 lakh and the total expenditure at Rs. 251.22 lakh during the year 1988-89 compared to Rs. 129.43 lakh and Rs. 236.05 lakh during 1987-88. The number of persons employed was 1115, which remained the same as that in the previous year.

Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINCO)
The corporation undertakes passenger and cargo transportation activities in and around Cochin. The Corporation owns 9 passenger boats with a seating capaciy of 777 persons during the year 1988-89. Out of the 9 boats, two are under repair.
Though the Corporation owned 9 barges with a total capacity of 1975 MT, only 7 were in operating during 1988-89.
Total revenue receipts of the Corporation stood at Rs. 86.80 lakh in 1988-89. Out of this 31.9 per cent was from passenger transport.

Kerala State Road Transport Corporation - Water Transport Wing
The water Transport Wing of KSRTC, having a fleet strength of 12 boats conducts boat services in 243 schedules through eight routes. The area of operation is in and around Cochin.
The board service carried 93.13 lakh passengers during 1988-89, and earned a total revenue of Rs. 49.63 lakh. During 1987-88 the corresponding performance indicators were 89.02 lakh persons.

Ports and Harbours
Kerala has altogether 14 ports, one major port at Cochin, three intermediate ports at Neendakara, Alleppey, and Calicut and ten minor ports at Vizhinjam, Trivandrum, Quilon, Kodungalloor, Badagara, Ponnani, Tellicherry, Cannanore, Azhikkal and Kasaragod.
The number of ships which called at the Cochin Port during the year 1988-89 also shows an increase of 8.9 per cent over that in the previous year. The number of sailing vessels reached the port of Cochin during 1988-89 also increased to 21 from 16 in the previous year. Number of passengers sailed from and arrived at Cochin Port during the year under review stood at 20497 and 21425 respectively; the corresponding figures in the previous year being 16598 and 21859.
The passenger steamer service introduced between Baipur and Lacadi-ves during 1987 where operative during 1988-89 and carried 1324 passengers from and 2152 passengers to the island. The service of a small oil barge between Baipur and the islands also continued to operate during the year.
Dredging operations were conducted by Departmental drudgers at the 2 intermediate ports Baipur and Neendakara and in Cochin Udyoga-mandal canal.
The hydrographic Survey Wing is entrusted with the responsibility of undertaking surveys to collect hydro-graphic investigation data for the development of various Minor Ports, Fishing Harbours and certain other selected places and to study the feasibility of improvement of the existing facilities there. Such data are being made available to the Harbour Engineering Department to enable them to design of cargo and Fishing Harbours. Apart from the routine harbour surveys, special surveys for marking channel etc. are also being carried out. Hydrographic surveys were conducted at eight places viz. Vizhinjam, Thankasserry, Neendakara, Munam-bam (Azhikkode), Beypore, Ponnani, Azhikkal and Kasaragod.

Communication
Kerala Postal Circle comprises 23 postal and 3 other divisions. Total number of post offices in 1988-89 remained the same at 4782 as in the previous year. There are 50 Head Offices, 1971 Departmentals and Extra Departmental sub offices and 2761 branch offices. Apart from this, seventy nine branch post offices out of the 80 sanctioned for the year 1988-89 have also been opened during the period from May to December 1989.

Other Postal Divisions are RMS with 92 subordinate offices, Mail Motor Service Division with 5 unit offices and a central stamp depot. Speed post system introduced during 1987 with two centres at Cochin and Trivandrum has expanded during the year with two more centres at Alwaye and Quilon.
Average area and population served by one post office in Kerala stood 8.15 sq.kms. and 6157 persons respectively.

Kerala Telecom Circle is divided into 10 Secondary Switching Areas consisting of 632 telephone exchanges. Total equipped capacity and working connections increased to 2,24,337 and 2,08,884 respectively during 1988-89. The corresponding figures at the end of the previous year were 1,95,852 and 1,84,770. The respective growths registered during the year are 12.7% and 11.5%. The increase in the installation of telephones, viz., 24,114 connections during the year is an all time record.' Seventeen new stations were connected to NDS (No Delay Service) network. Ernakulam stood first in regard to total number of telephone exchanges, equipped capacity and working connections. Average population served by each telephone connection, on the basis of projected population for the year 1989, is estimated at 141 persons.