Karnataka - Transport

Transport

Air transport in Karnataka, as in the rest of the country, is still a fledgling but fast expanding sector. Karnataka has airports at Bangalore, Mangalore, Hubli, Belgaum, Hampi, Bellary and Mysore with international operations from Bangalore and Mangalore airports. Major airlines such as Kingfisher Airlines and Kingfisher red are based in Bangalore.

Karnataka has a railway network with a total length of approximately 3,089 kilometres (1,919 mi). Until the creation of the South Western Zone headquartered at Hubli in 2003, the railway network in the state was in the Southern and Western railway zones. Several parts of the state now come under the South Western Zone, with the remainder under the Southern Railways. Coastal Karnataka is covered under the Konkan railway network which was considered India's biggest railway project of the century. Bangalore is extensively connected with inter-state destinations while other important cities and towns in the state are not so well-connected.

Karnataka has 11 ports, including the New Mangalore Port, a major port and ten other minor ports. The New Mangalore port was incorporated as the ninth major port in India on 4 May 1974. This port handled 32.04 million tonnes of traffic in the fiscal year 2006-07 with 17.92 million tonnes of imports and 14.12 million tonnes of exports. The port also handled 1015 vessels including 18 cruise vessels during the year 2006-07. The inland water transport within the state is not well developed.

The total lengths of National Highways and state highways in Karnataka are 3,973 kilometres (2,469 mi) and 9,829 kilometres (6,107 mi), respectively. The KSRTC, the state public transport corporation, transports an average of 2.2 million passengers daily and employs about 25,000 people. In the late nineties, KSRTC was split into three corporations, viz., The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, The North-West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation and The North-East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation with their headquarters in Bangalore, Hubli and Gulbarga respectively.