TRANSPORT

Kottayam district is fairly well networked in the matter of transport. The main transport modes in the district are roads and railways. Inland water transport is negligible. Out of the two transport modes, road transport caters to a major part of the traffic.

The district has 2106.86 km. road network under P.W.D. as on 01.04. 1998. The details is as follows (in Km). State Highway 409.70, Main district roads 1460, Other district roads 152.60, Village roads 84.60. The district has 5542. 28 km. panchayat roads.   Apart from the M.C. Road (S.H.I) and Punalur-Moovattupuzha Road which passes through the district, the Main State Highways in the district includes Kottayam-Kozhencherry road (S.H.9) Kottayam-Kumili Road (S.H.13), Ettumanoor-Erattupetta Road (S.H. 32), Erattupetta- Peerumed road (S.H.14), Ettumanoor-Ernakulam Road (S.H.15) and Changanassery- Alappuzha Road (S.H.11). A notable fact is that the passenger road transport is mainly in the private sector. However the State owned Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is also expanding its operations in the district by taking over new routes, providing additional schedules and establishing the existing services.

The 49 kms. of railway line runs through Changanassery, Kottayam and Vaikom taluks. Meenachil and Kanjirappally taluks are not reached by rail. There are seven railway stations in the district- Changanassery, Chingavanam, Kottayam, Ettumanoor, Kuruppanthara, Vaikom Road and Piravom Road.


ELECTRICITY

The district has two Electrical Circles- Kottayam and Pala and five Electrical Divisions- Pallom, Vaikom, Changanassery, Pala and Ponkunnam. There are One 220 K.V. Sub Station at Poovanthuruthu. Three 110 K.V.  Sub Stations at Pala, Vaikom and Chengalam and seven 66 K.V. Sub Stations at Pampady, Mundakkayam, Kottayam, Kanjirappally, Gadhinagar, Ettumanoor and Changanassery. A network of 2069.89km. H.T. line, 14657.99km. L.T. line, and  2285 transformers constitute the distribution sector in 1999-2000. In the Transmission Sector 118km. 220 K.V. line, 107.42km. 110 K.V. line and 81.5 kms. 66 K.V. line have set up. The connected load and energy consumption in October 1999, are 497.67 M.W. and 381.32 Million unit respectively. The total electricity consumers comes to 4.47 lakh of which 3.29 lakh is domestic consumers.