India need to increase bus transportation, have only four buses per 10,000 person

New Delhi: In order to meet the demand for public transport there is the requirement of approximate 30 lakh buses. But at present, there is only 3 lakh buses are available in the country. According to government data, there are a total of 19 lakh buses in the country among which only 2.8 lakh of them are running either by state transport undertakings or under stage carriage permits. Union transport secretary YS Malik said that India needs about 30 lakh buses to meet the requirement of general passengers. The people who are hired by state transport organizations are also working at the sub-optimal level, which creates a big difference. At the same time, public transport experts say that the quality of service and the lack of buses are also motivating people to move for private vehicles. Both in urban and rural areas they are dependent on shared mobility. So there is an urgent need to improve the public transport. Experts in the urban transport sector said that it is despite increasing penetration of Metro rail networks and cab services, a large chunk of people will use buses for commuting. Experts in the urban transport sector say that instead of increasing the network of metro rail, it is necessary to increase the number of buses. There is also less rail network in London but most of the people travel through buses. There are 67 million buses only for 317 lakh passengers. Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that there are six buses for one thousand people in China, there are only 4 buses for ten thousand people in India. About 90 percent of Indians are those who do not own their own any vehicle, they prefer the sharing vehicles. Shashi Verma, director of strategy and chief technology officer of TfL, said that rail, underground (Metro) and light rail put together about 74 lakh share of the total journey, Verma further added that while the per-kilometer cost of running state transport buses in India is estimated around Rs 120-150 per kilometer Rs 120-150 per kilometer this can come down by half if private operators take up the task.