CHAPTER VII.
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
Roads—Their length and condition—Quarries— Maintenance, establishment and allotments—Bridges—Ferries. Water Carriage—The rivers—Upper Godavari project—Navigable canals; their history—Expenditure and traffic—Nature of traffic—Conflicting interests of irrigation and navigation. Madras Railway. Accommodation for travellers—Bungalows—Chattrams.
There are just under 850 miles of road in the Godavari district, most of which are shaded by fine avenues. Of these, 580 miles are metalled or gravelled, chiefly the former. The long lead from the quarries which has in most cases to be paid for, makes it the best economy to carry the best material available, and latterly gravel has for that reason been discarded. The rest of the roads are repaired with earth and sand. Nearly four-fifths of these earth roads are in the Agency divisions of Polavaram and Bhadrachalam, the former of which possesses less than thirty, and the latter only six, miles of metalled road. On a good metalled road a cart will carry 1,500 lb. at about two miles an hour; on an earth road the load is about 1,000 lb. and the distance traversed in an hour about one and a half miles. The metalled roads in the uplands are generally good, and so are some of those in the delta; but the latter have great difficulties to contend with. They have usually to be made on a rich alluvial soil saturated by irrigation water for many months in the year, and the lead for metal is nearly always long, and in some cases amounts to as many as 40 miles. The numerous navigable canals enable this metal to be transported at less cost than usual, but it often has to be carted by road for four, five and even six miles from the canal-side depots to the places where it is required. Moreover, floods occasionally submerge the country and do a great deal of damage, and against these it is impossible to provide entirely except at enormous expense. Finally the material available is not of the best, being only laterite of fair quality.
The metal used in the delta is obtained from the laterite quarries of Kadayam and Samalkot. The uplands are as well supplied with quarries as most other districts, and some of those recently opened yield very good metal. Ordinarily the only material available is laterite and sandstone of poor quality.
