Housing Status

The NSS 59th round survey (January-December 2003) on consumer expenditure & employment – unemployment situation in India gives comparative details on housing status in various states and all India. The survey results say that Kerala State has gone much ahead in solving the problems of housing in comparison with other States and Union Territories. While 75% of the households in Kerala were living in pucca houses, the all India level of it was only 63% in the year 2003. As regards the rural households, the percentage of people living in pucca houses in Kerala was 66% while it was only 44% at the all India level. On the other hand, not much increase had been registered in Kerala as against all India level on urban households living in pucca houses. The comparative statement of house holds living in kucha, semi pucca and pucca houses in Kerala and all India during 2003 is given in Table below. Ref: Economic Review 2005; Government of Kerala

In the case of ownership of land, 86 percentage of the households in Kerala are staying in their own houses, it was only 78 percentage at the all India level. Though there was not much gap on ownership of living houses in rural Kerala and rural India, the gap is much wider in urban areas. While 80 percentage of households in urban Kerala were living in their own houses, the position of it at the all India level was only 62 percent. The details are given in Table below.

Transport Infrastructure
Transport system of the State consists of 1.54 lakh KM of road, 1148 KM of Railways, 1687 KM of Inland Waterways and 111 statute miles of Airways and 18 Ports.

National Highways in Kerala
The length of National Highways in Kerala (see Table below) increased from 1523.954 km in 2003-04 to 1525.570 KM during 2004-05. National Highways in Kerala is only 2.3% of the total National Highway length spread over 1525.570 KM in India. Improvement and strengthening of 320 km of National Highways was carried out by providing Bituminous Macadam and Asphalic concrete in the year 2004-05.

State Road Network
On the road front, traffic has been growing at a rate of 10 to 11 percent every year, resulting in excessive pressure on the roads in the State. Total road length in Kerala during 2004-05, increased to 154679 KM from 145704 kms in the previous year, registering an increase of 6 percent. Road density in the State is 398 km / 100 sq.km and it is far ahead of national average of 74.9 km/100 sq.km. The length of road per lakh population is 485.8 km and it is much higher than the national average of 259.2 km. The roads maintained by Panchayats has also increased by 5.34 percent in 2004-05. Category of road network in Kerala is shown in figure below:

Telecommunication
Telecommunication is one of the prime support services needed for rapid growth and modernisation of the economy. The Telecommunication services in India have improved significantly since independence.

Kerala Telecom circles serves the whole of Kerala State, the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and part of Union Territory of Pondicherry (Mahe). The Circle has 11 major Secondary Switching Areas (SSAs) and one minor Secondary Switching Area (SSA) of Lakshadweep. Out of 11 major Secondary Switching Areas (SSAs), four at (Trivandrum, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Trichur) are headed by Principal General Managers and 7 are headed by General Managers. Lakshadweep minor SSA is headed by a Telecom District Manager.

In Kerala, all the telephone exchanges were made automatic for the first time in the whole country, way back in 1990. In 1992 Kerala became the first state to provide Public Telephone facilities in all Panchayats Headquarters. Kerala is also the first state to provide Public Telephone in every village, by 1995. Kerala has a telephone density of 114.3 per thousand population as on 30.9.2005. The rural telephone density is 100 per 1000 population and urban telephone density is 153 per 1000 population.

Institutions in Kerala
Environmental institutions and organizations