The dilapidated state of passenger transport via road in India

According to National Transport Development Policy Committee, about 90% of the passenger traffic is accounted for by road transport. As per PIB, a total of 3.06% of GVA (Gross Value Added) is contributed by road transport while the total transport contribution is 4.58%.

Even after this huge significance, passenger transport via road faces serious issues of efficiency and effectiveness.

Recently, I was travelling from Anand to Ahmedabad. I reached the bus stand at 8:30 pm where I saw around 20-25 people waiting. As a bus to Dakor came, all of us rushed to see if the bus was to our destination. Only 2-3 people onboarded the bus while the rest came back. As I can’t read Gujarati, I asked a guy near me if the buses to Ahmedabad would come exclusively on that platform. He said yes and told me that the bus would be coming any moment. He was told by the Inquiry office that a bus to Ahmedabad was there at 8:30 pm.

As time passed, there was no sight of the bus to Ahmedabad. In the meantime, one bus to Nadiad and two more buses to Dakor came. While one passenger onboarded the bus to Nadiad, no passenger onboarded the latter two buses to Dakor. The buses to Dakor went without any passengers. Finally, the bus to Ahmedabad arrived at 10:40 pm, 2:40 hrs. since the previous bus to Ahmedabad had left.

The distance between Anand and Ahmedabad is around 75 km and it takes 1-1.5 hrs. to reach Ahmedabad. Major transport available is government buses and railways. There are two bus stands in Anand. The old one is near the railway station while the new one is a bit far. Last time when I was coming from Vadodara, the bus conductor told me that it’ll only stop at the old bus stand and will not go to the new one. This means there would be buses which will stop at just one of the bus stands and not the other one while most of them stop at both the old and the new bus stand.

These issues, added to the issues of unreliable and expensive private transport, lead to high ineffectiveness in passenger transport. The buses to Dakor went empty and likewise, many buses run empty or with low capacity in the country while passengers to some destinations wait for hours.

The issue is not unsolvable. With the help of technology, I think this problem can be solved. That is what they are trying to achieve for freight transportation through the National Logistics Policy which will help in coordination, thus, achieving greater efficiency.

With the integration of real-time data on how many passengers are waiting to travel from one place to another, they can be advised to take a particular mode of transport. Here, the portal can also have real-time data of private vehicles willing to accommodate fellow passengers so that the overall efficiency increases. It could be similar to what the Blabla car is trying to do but on a larger scale and real-time basis with the integration of all types of passenger transportation.

I think this will facilitate decision-making and solve many efficiency and efficacy problems in the passenger transport sector.