SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 12 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.

About what percentage of passenger traffic is carried by roads in India?

(a)57%
(b)87%
(c)77%
(d)67%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Roads carry the largest share of passenger movement in India by a wide margin — more than rail, air and inland waterways together — and the share quoted for them is about 87%.

Road transport is the only mode with door-to-door reach. It feeds every other mode, it serves settlements no railway line touches, and it takes the short daily trips that make up most journeys.

That dominance is what the figure records, and option (b) carries it.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
57% — 57% would hand more than two-fifths of all passenger movement to rail, air and water, far more than those modes actually carry.
(c)
77% — 77% is the near miss — the right direction, but below the share quoted for passenger traffic moved by road.
(d)
67% — 67% sits in the range quoted for the freight share carried by roads, which is lower than the passenger share. The two numbers are easy to swap.

Concept

India's transport modes divide the work unevenly. Roads carry most passengers and a large share of freight, railways carry bulk goods over long distances along with a big absolute number of passengers, and air and inland waterways carry little of either by volume.

Roads win on reach and flexibility. They need no terminal, they serve hilly and scattered settlements, and they supply the first and last leg of nearly every rail or air journey.

Official sources state the road share of passenger traffic slightly differently, so the exam is not testing an audited statistic — it is testing whether you place roads in the high band. The options are ten points apart (57, 67, 77, 87), and 87% is the value SSC's key takes.

Key facts

Road transport carries the largest share of India's passenger traffic, well ahead of rail.
SSC's key for this item puts that share at 87%.
The road share of freight is quoted lower than the road share of passengers.
Roads provide the first and last leg of most rail and air journeys, which is why their reach exceeds every other mode.

Study next

Classification of Indian roads — National Highways, State Highways, district and rural roadsThe Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South and East-West corridorsRoad and rail compared on passenger share and on freight share

Common traps

Swapping the passenger share for the lower freight share.
Choosing a mid-70s figure because most feels like three-quarters.

Road transport tends to come as one quotable number or rank — India's world position for road network size, from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways annual report 2020-21, was asked on 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.4.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.