Authors: Purvansh Bhupendrabhai Shah
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.22214/ijraset.2023.54066
Certificate: View Certificate
This study has been undertaken to study Road and rail which is two most important inland modes of transportation available in our country. Rail transport is one of the important and more utilized transport in our country for Goods. Due to growth in infrastructure sector one should find the best possible techniques for Goods Transport surveys in Urban Areas.
I. INTRODUCTION
Road and rail are the two most important inland modes of transportation available in the country. But because of the various advantages in the former mode of transportation over the latter, especially in the transportation of different commodities, it is gaining more and more importance. During the period from 1960-61 to 1965-66, the share of goods traffic carried by rail has fallen from 84 per cent to 78 per cent and there is a corresponding increase in the case of road transport. There is a further fall in the proportion from 78 per cent to 76 per cent in 1968-69.Also further study of Roads and Railways is carried out by taking use of websites , online platforms for the year 2017 to 2022.
TABLE I Goods traffic (Billion Tonne-Kilometers) Percentage Share
Year |
Railways |
Roads |
Railways |
Roads |
1960-61 |
88 |
17 |
83.8 |
16.2 |
1965-66 |
117 |
34 |
77.50 |
22.50 |
1968-69 |
125 |
40 |
75.8 |
24.20 |
TABLE-2 Goods traffic (Million Tonne-Kilometers) Percentage Share
Year |
Railways |
Roads |
Railways |
Roads |
2017-18 |
1161 |
253 |
1223 |
272.60 |
2019-20 |
1210 |
295.8 |
1233 |
326.30 |
2021-22 |
1418 |
361.3 |
1512 |
398.5 |
2. The higher proportion of goods traffic carried by railways is only because of the low-rated goods in bulk such as coal, iron ore, steel, foodgrains, fertilisers, cement mineral oil etc., which account for more than 60 per cent of the total goods moved by the railways. But all the high rated traffic previously being transported by railways is now going towards road transport. Thus, keeping in view this increasing preference towards road transport, especially for the purpose of goods transportation, it is necessary to provide all facilities for efficient and economical flow of goods traffic in metropolitan cities. For the planning of an efficient system of circulation of goods traffic in a metropolitan city and also for the purpose of recommending suitable locations for goods terminals, parkings, railway goods sheds and other facilities in the city, it is quite essential that exhaustive surveys are conducted to study the different aspects of the problem.
II. METHODS OF CONDUCTING STUDIES
There are two methods, generally, used for conducting goods transport studies;
A. Registration Method
B. Roadside Interview Method
a. Locations from where the goods traffic is either generated or locations to which the traffic is attracted (terminated) or both such as railways goods sheds, railway parcel offices and mandis etc.
b. Roads which carry heavy volume of goods traffic.
2. Field surveys are conducted on all the selected focal points and the required data is collected at the site itself. This method has many advantages which the previous method does not possess. The data collected can be more accurate and reliable since it is also subject to verification at the site itself.
3. The Central Road Research Institute has recently, conducted an extensive study on the subject, at the request and on behalf of Delhi Administration and the Planning Commission, Government of India. In this study, collection of data was done by the 'Roadside interview method'.
III. TECHNIQUE OF SURVEY ADOPTED IN A RECENT GOODS TRANSPORT
a. Mechanically Propelled vehicles constituting trucks, tempos and others such as truck-trailers etc.
b. Slow moving vehicles constituting bullock carts, hand carts, horse carts (rehras) and others such as camel carts etc.
4. Interviewing of Vehicles For the purpose of collection of necessary data about the goods vehicles, separate proformae were designed for slow-moving and mechanically propelled vehicles as shown in Appendices 1 and 2. The data was collected regarding the origin and destination of the vehicle, the commodities transported, the load (weight) carried, the distance to which the commodities were transported and all other items as desired. A suitable proportion of the total goods vehicles passing through a focal point were selected and interviewed at the site itself.
5. Sampling Technique
a. Generally for the sake of convenience a fixed proportion of goods vehicles passing through a point is taken for the purpose of interviewing the vehicles. It may be 20 per cent or 25 per cent, by taking every fifth or a fourth vehicle passing through a particular side of the survey point. But since the rate of flow of goods vehicles at a particular point is generally observed to be varying much during different periods, the procedure of taking a constant proportional sampling throughout the day is little difficult as it requires corresponding fluctuations in the strength of the interviewers etc. To avoid this difficulty, a new sampling technique was designed which was adopted for the study conducted by the Institute. In this technique, the two basic requirements kept in view were :--
b. To start with the procedure, the first few vehicles were stopped on one side of the road and the interviewers were asked to start their work. While the interviewers were busy with the previous vehicles the other vehicles, passing through the point, were allowed to go till when a previous vehicle had left the interviewing site and the interviewer was ready to start a fresh interview, a signal was given to the police official who then directed the first vehicle that reached him into the interviewing site. The procedure continued till the end.
c. In actual practice only this method of "Variable rate sampling" is always preferred over the other methods of "Time cluster sampling" and "Volume cluster sampling" etc. Interviewers are employed at a constant rate and the size of the sample selected varies with the volume of traffic flow. To reduce bias different sample rates are usually calculated for different classes of vehicle. After the field surveys are completed, the data is statistically processed so as to derive important findings on the basis of which recommendations can be made regarding locations suitable for the purposes of goods terminals, idle parking of goods vehicles, railway yards etc., for an efficient and economical system of flow of goods traffic in the Urban area.
1) Benefits of rail transport over road transport, one should keep in mind is :- Rail transport can be cost effective, Shipping via train is more environmentally friendly, Trains are capable of hauling large loads, Railways are reliable, Rail freight can be efficient, Rail options provide you with access to capacity. 2) Rail transports are more dependable than road transport (bad road conditions make road transport undependable). 3) Bad weather does not affect rail transport as much as it affects road transport. 4) As Railways are being managed by the Government in India, the tariff charged for transporting goods is determined only by the Railway Ministry. The rates, therefore, are standardized. 5) Railway accidents are much less when compared to accidents in highways. This ensures safe transportation of goods to different destinations. 6) Railways will have to strictly adhere to the time schedule. This avoids delay.
[1] Website:- https://pwddelhi.gov.in/writeread/Other/201704201119442726.pdf [2] Website:- https://www.csir.res.in/gallery/central-road-research-institute-crri-new-delhi [3] Website:- https://crridom.gov.in/ [4] Highway Engineering by Khanna & Justo,2018. [5] Highway Engineering by L.R. Kadiyali,2018. [6] Highway Engineering by Rangwala, 2012. [7] Transportation Engineering by D.R. Pathak and H.K. Giite,2018.
Copyright © 2023 Purvansh Bhupendrabhai Shah. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Paper Id : IJRASET54066
Publish Date : 2023-06-14
ISSN : 2321-9653
Publisher Name : IJRASET
DOI Link : Click Here