Ports
Out of the total of 20 ports in the State, 14 are located in Uttara Kannada District.
The remaining 6 are located in the Dakshina Kannada district. Important among both these are the Mangalore Port and Karwar Port. Importance of these two ports will assume greater significance, if the abundant deposits of iron-ore, and manganese in Bellary Hospet region are tapped. Besides the city of Bangalore, there are two other airports. (I) Mangalore, and (ii) Belgaum. There are indications that Bangalore will soon become an International Airport. Air India, Lufthansa, Kuwait Airways operate international cargo flights from Bangalore on regular basis.
Roads
Road length per 1000 km : 798
Surfaced roads/ 00 sq km: 54.1
Karnataka has a good network of roads. It has 6 National Highways passing through the State. State highways and Rural Roads Network make inter-city and town communication accessible. It is worth mentioning here that the rural Road network has brought remotest villages in touch with towns.
The National Highway covers 1968 kms, the State Highway cover 17,997 kms. The village and municipal roads cover about 95,000 kms. The road length per 100 kmarea is 65-70 kms in Karnataka which compares well with the National average.
Railway
Railway track length /00 sq km: 1.6
The Railway network covers a total length of 3090 kms, Major cities like Bangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Hassan and Mangalore are well connected to other parts of the country.
Airports
Karnataka has five functional airports at Hubli, Mysore, Belgaum, Mangalore, Hassan and Bangalore.Bangalore is well connected with the rest of the country.International flights originate from Bangalore as well.A new international airport for Bangalore is scheduled to be commissioned shortly.In addition to the need for up-gradation of existing airports, the Government proposes to establish domestic airports in district towns which have adequate economic potential.The State also recognizes the need to increase connectivity to areas where large projects are coming up.The State has identified Hubli, gulbarga, Mysore, bellary and Hassan for the construction of minor airports to handle 50 seater aircraft initially.
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Power
The State has the distinction of having established the first Hydro-Electric Power Generation Station in Asia. Today, the power generating potential through Hydel Projects is very promising here.
The total potential in the State is estimated at 7,700 MW, of which about 2,400 MW has been tapped. Installed capacity is expected to go upto 5,295 MW by the end of the 8th Five Year Plan.
Future Projects
Mini and Micro Hydro-Electric Projects and Non-Conventional Energy Sources are estimated to generate 2,910 MW, which thermal power projects of 1,500 MW are proposed to be implemented in the 9th and 10th Plan periods.
Besides the power generated by the stations located in Karnataka, the State gets its share from the Central Power Stations at Ramagundam and Neyveli.
Steady industrialisation of the State has seen a steady rise in the energy demand. With the completion of the on-going projects and the implementation on future ones, the State will balance the demand and supply of power.
Communications
There are presently 3,75,000 telephone lines in the State. Subscriber Trunk Dialing and International Subscriber Dialing are now available in all major cities (70 cities) of the State.
There are 9,650 Post Offices in the State and 1,130 Telephone Exchanges.
The communication sector in the State infrastructure has made rapid strides.
Banking & Finance
Karnataka offers strong financial support to entrepreneurs through several Government of Karnataka institutions like KSIIDC, KITVEN and KSFC as well as Government of India financial institutions like IDBI, IFCI, SIDBI, NABARD and TDICI.
The banking sector in Karnataka is one of the strongest in the country with an extensive network of banks, both nationalised and private, operating all over the state. Four of the country's major nationalised banks as well as one of India's largest private banks, Vysya Bank, have their headquarters here.
And, this has been further reinforced in recent years with the world's leading banking corporations like CITIBANK, Bank of America, Standard Chartered Bank HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Bank Muscat, Nova Scotia and several others setting up their branches here.
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