SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 25 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 10 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.

As of Financial year 2019, which of the following state has the highest road density in India?

(a)Haryana
(b)Tamil Nadu
(c)Punjab
(d)Kerala

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Kerala has the highest road density among the Indian states.

Road density is road length per unit of area, so the measure rewards a small, densely settled state rather than a large one with long highways.

Kerala is compact, carries a very high population density, and its settlement runs almost continuously along the coastal plain instead of clustering into separated towns. Every stretch of that ribbon needs road, and the ratio climbs.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Haryana — Haryana is compact and well connected, but the metric is length per unit area and Kerala's figure is the higher one. Being close on a ratio is not the same as leading it.
(b)
Tamil Nadu — Tamil Nadu carries a very large total road length, which is what makes it tempting. Total length is not density, and a much larger area divides that length down.
(c)
Punjab — Punjab has a dense mesh of rural link roads across a heavily farmed plain, and still sits below Kerala once road length is divided by area.

Concept

Road density is the length of road per unit of area, usually stated per 100 square kilometres. Two things follow from that definition.

First, it is a ratio, so a small state with a modest network can outrank a large state that has far more kilometres of road.

Second, it tracks settlement pattern more than wealth. Where people live spread out and continuously, as along Kerala's coastal plain, road length per unit area rises.

National road-length data comes from Basic Road Statistics of India, published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

The stem time-stamps the fact to financial year 2019. Treat a dated superlative as dated: if a later year is named in another paper, check whether the figure you memorised still applies before reusing it.

Key facts

Road density is road length per unit area, conventionally per 100 square kilometres.
Kerala has the highest road density among Indian states.
National road-length data is published in Basic Road Statistics of India by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Study next

Road density and rail density: how each is calculatedClassification of Indian roads: national highways, state highways, district and rural roadsPradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the growth of rural road length

Common traps

Reading highest road density as longest road network, when dividing by area reorders the states.
Assuming the richer or more industrialised state must top the metric.
Ignoring the financial year printed in the stem on a question whose answer can move.

Transport geography arrives as a definition wrapped in a superlative: highest density, longest network, which state leads. Settle the definition first — length per unit area — and the superlative usually resolves itself.

Related PYQs

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