Which of the following country has the highest density of rail network?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Asia
The density of a rail network is the length of railway line in a given area. It is high where many people live and many towns and industries need rail links.
Option (1) Africa — Incorrect. Africa is the second largest continent, but it has only about 40,000 km of railways. Most lines just join port cities to centres inland.
Option (2) Canada — Incorrect. Canada’s railways spread over sparsely populated areas. Its long transcontinental lines carry wheat and coal.
Option (3) Asia — Correct. Asia has the thickly populated lands of Japan, China and India, where the rail network is the most dense.
Option (4) Australia — Incorrect. Australia also has only about 40,000 km of railways, and a quarter of them lie in New South Wales alone.
Note: It seems that there is a mistake in the original NTA paper, which asks for a ‘country’ when Africa, Asia and Australia are continents. The given answer is as per the official NTA Answer Key. The book does not rank them by rail density. It says that in Asia the rail network is most dense in the thickly populated areas of Japan, China and India. The railways of Canada are spread over thinly populated areas, and Africa and Australia have only about 40,000 km of railways each. So Asia has the densest rail network of the four.
NCERT (2026-27): “Railways … In Canada, railways are in the public sector and distributed all over the sparsely populated areas. The transcontinental railways carry the bulk of wheat and coal tonnage.” “Australia has about 40,000 km of railways, of which 25 per cent are found in New South Wales alone.” “In Asia, rail network is the most dense in the thickly populated areas of Japan, China and India. Other countries have relatively few rail routes.” “Africa continent, despite being the second largest, has only 40,000 km of railways with South Africa alone accounting for 18,000 km due to the concentration of gold, diamond and copper mining activities.” |