SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 23 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

In which of the following states is the development of rail transport less, due to its geographical conditions?

(a)Bihar
(b)Uttar Pradesh
(c)Sikkim
(d)Haryana

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Sikkim lies wholly in the eastern Himalaya, and that relief is the reason railway building there has barely begun - steep, unstable slopes force long tunnels and high bridges for every kilometre of track.

Its nearest major railhead has been New Jalpaiguri, outside the state in West Bengal.

The other three states named lie in the plains, where level land and dense settlement produced some of the busiest rail networks in the country.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Bihar — Bihar sits in the flat Gangetic plain and carries one of India's densest rail networks. Terrain is no obstacle there.
(b)
Uttar Pradesh — Uttar Pradesh has among the longest railway route lengths of any Indian state, laid across open plains. Its rail development is high, not low.
(d)
Haryana — Haryana is plains country as well, crossed by the trunk routes radiating from Delhi. Nothing in its relief slows railway construction.

Concept

Physical geography decides where railways get built.

The northern plains - level land, deep alluvial soil, dense population and heavy farm output - gave India its densest network.

The standard obstacles are the opposite conditions: hilly terrain, sandy desert, swampy ground and dense forest. Each raises the cost of a route many times over, through tunnelling, bridging and slope stabilisation.

Sikkim combines the worst of these, which is why the Sivok-Rangpo project meant to give the state its first rail link has been so long under construction.

Key facts

The northern plains, with level land and dense population, carry India's densest railway network.
Hilly terrain, sandy desert, swamps and dense forest are the standard obstacles to railway construction in India.
Sikkim lies entirely in the eastern Himalaya, and its nearest major railhead has been New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.

Study next

Physiography and its effect on India's transport networksIndian Railways zones and the states they coverThe Konkan Railway as a case of building through difficult terrain

Common traps

Reading less development as an economic ranking when the question names geographical conditions.
Explaining Sikkim's low rail length by its small size rather than by its relief.

The geography slot often pairs a physical feature with an economic consequence.

In this same shift, 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.3 does the same thing by asking what mainly causes land degradation in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.