Internal transportation and communications are fairly well developed. The country is covered extensively by rail and road networks, supplemented by airline routes among the major cities. The Indian railroad system is Asia's largest and the world's second largest network under single management. It has a route length of about 62 500 kilometres (38 800 miles) and is the largest public sector undertaking in the country.

Road transport plays an important role in internal transportation, and its share in both goods and passenger traffic is increasing, at the cost of the railroads. The central government is responsible for the maintenance and development of the national highway system, while state governments maintain the state and local roads. Passenger road transport systems are largely in the public sector, but road freight traffic remains almost exclusively in the private sector.

The maritime transport industry has the sixteenth largest fleet in the world, and the major ports are Mumbai, Jawarharlal Nehru also in Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta. Inland water transport and coastal shipping are not very well developed.

Scheduled air services are operated by two public sector corporations - Air India, for international routes and Indian Airlines, and its subsidiary, Alliance Air, for domestic and some international routes. In recent years, a number of private airline companies have begun operations on the major trunk routes and, as stipulated in the licensing requirements, on some unremunerative routes as well.

Telephone, telex, fax and electronic mail services are available within the country, but these...