essay on indian transport system

Essay on Transport in India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Transport in India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Transport in India

Introduction.

India’s transport system is vast and diverse, providing critical connectivity. It includes several modes like road, rail, air, and water transport.

Road Transport

Roads are the most common form of transport in India. They connect cities, towns, and villages, facilitating the movement of people and goods.

Rail Transport

India has one of the largest railway networks globally, serving millions daily. Trains are a popular and affordable means of long-distance travel.

Air and Water Transport

Air travel is fastest, while waterways are used for transporting heavy goods. Both play a crucial role in India’s transport system.

250 Words Essay on Transport in India

India, a vast country with diverse geographical features, has a complex and multifaceted transportation system. The transport infrastructure includes an extensive network of roads, railways, airways, and waterways, connecting its teeming population and facilitating economic growth.

Road transport is the backbone of India’s transport system, accounting for about 70% of freight and 90% of passenger traffic. The National Highway Development Project has significantly enhanced connectivity. However, challenges like traffic congestion, inadequate maintenance, and high accident rates persist.

The Indian Railways, the fourth largest rail network globally, is a vital component of the national economy. Despite its extensive reach, capacity constraints, outdated technology, and operational inefficiencies hinder its potential.

With increasing urbanization and economic development, air transport has gained prominence. India’s aviation sector, however, faces issues like high operational costs and infrastructural bottlenecks. On the other hand, water transport, despite being environmentally friendly and cost-effective, remains underutilized due to inadequate infrastructure.

Future of Transport in India

The future of transport in India hinges on sustainable, technology-driven solutions. Initiatives like the Smart Cities Mission and the introduction of high-speed trains and electric vehicles indicate a shift towards innovative, eco-friendly transport systems. Nevertheless, comprehensive planning, significant investment, and effective policy implementation are crucial for realizing this vision.

Transportation in India, while expansive and diverse, requires significant improvements to meet the growing demands of its population and economy. By embracing innovation and sustainability, India can transform its transport sector, enhancing connectivity, and fostering inclusive growth.

500 Words Essay on Transport in India

India, with its vast and diverse geography, presents a unique transportation challenge. The country’s transport system is a key component of its socio-economic framework, with a direct impact on both urban and rural communities. The transport infrastructure in India includes an extensive network of roads, railways, airways, and waterways that connect the country’s length and breadth.

Road transport is the backbone of India’s transportation system, accounting for about 70% of the country’s goods traffic and nearly 90% of passenger traffic. The country boasts the world’s second-largest road network, spanning more than 5.5 million kilometers. However, the condition of Indian roads varies widely, with highways and city roads often being in better shape than rural roads. The government has launched various initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Bharatmala Pariyojana to improve rural connectivity and augment national highways.

Railway Transport

The Indian Railways, the fourth largest rail network globally, plays a crucial role in connecting different regions of the country. It not only serves as a vital mode of transport for passengers but also facilitates the movement of goods across the country. The Indian Railways has been undergoing significant transformation with the introduction of high-speed trains, dedicated freight corridors, and the digitization of ticketing services.

Air Transport

Air transport in India has witnessed exponential growth in recent years, making it the world’s third-largest civil aviation market. The government’s UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme aims to make air travel affordable and widespread, connecting smaller towns and cities. However, issues such as high operational costs and infrastructural bottlenecks need to be addressed for sustainable growth.

Water Transport

India, with a coastline of over 7500 kilometers and significant inland water resources, has immense potential for water transport. However, this mode remains underutilized due to lack of modern infrastructure and policy focus. The recent Sagarmala initiative aims to promote port-led development and harness the potential of waterways.

Challenges and Future Prospects

Despite significant strides, India’s transport system faces challenges like inadequate infrastructure, traffic congestion, pollution, and safety concerns. The need of the hour is to develop sustainable and smart transportation systems. The government’s focus on infrastructure development, promotion of electric vehicles, and initiatives like Smart Cities Mission and Make in India are positive steps towards this direction.

In conclusion, India’s transport system, with its vast and diverse network, plays a pivotal role in the country’s socio-economic development. While challenges persist, the future holds immense potential for transformation, driven by policy initiatives, technological advancements, and a focus on sustainable practices.

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Essay on Road Transport System of India

In this essay we will discuss about Road Transport System of India. After reading this essay you will learn about: 1. Introduction to Road Transport System in India 2. Importance of Road Transport System in Indian Economy 3. Scenario 4. Problems 5. Suggestions for Improvement.

Essay on the Suggestions for Improvement of Road Transport System in India

Essay # 1. Introduction to Road Transport System in India :

Road transport is the second important mode of transport in India. It covers every corner of the country which the railway transport even could not cover. Road transport provides the basic infrastructural facilities to both the agricultural and industrial sector of the country.

Moreover, construction and maintenance of roads can generate huge employment opportunities as it is twice as labour intensive as agriculture or housing. Indian roads carry 85 per cent of the passengers and 70 per cent of the freight traffic of the country. The highways, make up only 2 per cent of the road network by length, but carry 40 per cent of this traffic.

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Indian roads are classified broadly into following four categories:

(a) National Highways:

National Highways are considered as main arterial routes as it connects big cities, industrial centres, major ports and different states of the country. Total length of National Highways is nearly 79.1 thousand kms in 2012-13 and caters to about 45 per cent of the total road transport demand. The construction and maintenance of national highways of the country are the responsibility of the central government.

(b) State Highways:

State highways are the important roads which are connecting district headquarter and important towns and cities with the capital and National Highways. Construction and the maintenance of state highways are the responsibility of the State Government. Total length of State Highways in 2012-13 was 168.3 thousand kms.

District roads connect production centres and markets. It also connects main roads to the interior places of each and every district. Major portion of this road is unmetalled and are, therefore, un-motor able during the rainy season. Total length of major district roads was 470.0 thousand km in 2004-05.

(d) Village Roads:

Village roads of India are connecting villages with one another and also connect the village roads with the nearest district roads, highway, railway stations or river ghat. Village roads may be broadly of two types—Classified and Unclassified. Unclassified Village roads are normally non-metalled roads. Total length of rural roads was 2,650.0 thousand km in 2004-05.

In India, total length of roads has increased from 4 lakh kms in 1950-51 to nearly 49.49 lakh kms in 2012-13 out of which 27.42 lakh kms is surfaced and the rest 22.07 lakhs kms is un-surfaced. This shows that annual growth rate of this increase in road length was 4.5 per cent.

National Highways which have a total length of nearly 66,800 kms constitute only 1.6 per cent of the total road system of the country. About 64 per cent of the villages of the country have a rural road network and the rest 36 per cent have no road connections. Moreover, over 65 per cent of our villages do not have an all weather roads.

At present, India has a total road network covering 4.69 million kilometers which makes it one of the largest road networks in the world. The country’s road network consists of National Highways, State Highways, Major District Roads, Other District Roads and Village Roads.

The road network comprises 79,100 km of National Highways, 1,68,300 km. of State Highways 4,70,000 km of Major District Roads and about 26,50,000 km of other District and Rural Roads.

Out of the total length of National Highways, about 24 per cent is single lane / intermediate lane, about 51 per cent is standard 2- lane and balance 25 per cent is 4-lane width or more. Though National Highways account for only 2 per cent of the total length of roads, they account for about 40 per cent of the total traffic.

It is estimated that road traffic in India accounts for 80 per cent of passenger traffic and 60 per cent of goods traffic in the country. In future, 87 per cent of the passenger traffic and 65 per cent of the goods traffic is expected to be met through road transport system.

In our Five Year Plans, a good amount of fund was allocated for the development of roads. During the first three plans and the Annual Plans, nearly Rs 1,104 crore was spent on the heads of road development. Again the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Plan had allocated funds worth Rs 862 crore, Rs 1,348 crore, Rs 3,439 crore and Rs 5,200 crore respectively for the development of roads in the country.

Central Road Fund (CRF) :

Road construction is a capital intensive project. Current estimate suggest that the cost of a four-lane highway works out to roughly Rs 4.5 crore per kilometer and the cost of a protected access, six-lane expressway works out to roughly Rs 8.5 crore per kilometer. Under the present situation, the experiences with tolling suggest that there is limited scope for obtaining user charges through tolls.

A key innovation in recent years was the creation of a major new source of funding for national, state and rural roads: the Central Road Fund (CRF) created under the Central Road Fund Act, 2000. This was a major milestone in obtaining user charges to fund road construction.

The following are the details of the Central Road Fund:

1. Additional excise duty of Re. 1 per litre on petrol levied since September 2, 1998 and Re. 1 per litre on high speed diesel since March 1999 accrue to the Central Road Fund (CRF). An amount of Rs 6,030 crore is collected during 2002-03 under the CRF. Recently, the cess is raised to Rs 2.00 per litre on the sale of petrol and diesel.

2. The allocation of cess among various categories is made in the following manner:

(a) 50 per cent of cess on HSD for development of rural roads:

(b) Out of the remaining 50 per cent of HSD cess plus 100 per cent of petrol cess—57.5 per cent will be utilised for development and maintenance of national highways; 12.5 per cent will be utilised for development and maintenance of road bridges, under/over railway lines/safety work for unmanned railway crossing; and the remaining 30 per cent for the development and maintenance of state roads other than rural roads. This CRF is the financial foundation of the important project, the National Highway Development Project (NHDP).

Thus, the National Highways are considered as prime arterial route. Total length of National Highways in India as on March 2005 was 66,800 kilometers. The National Highways Authority of India which was constituted under the National Highway Authority of India Act, 1988 was made operational in February, 1995.

Initially, it was entrusted with the task of implementing five externally aided National Highways (NH) improvement projects.

Subsequently, it was mandated to implement the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) comprising 4/6 laning of 14,279 km of national highways having two components, i.e.,

(i) The Golden Quadrilateral connecting four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata (5,846 km.),

(ii) North-South and East-West corridors (7,300 km) connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Silchar to Saurashtra respectively and Salem to Cochin

(iii) Port Connectivity and other projects (1,157 kms) and

(iv) NHDP Phase-III-A: four laning of 4,035 km of BOT in the year 2005 approved at an estimated cost of Rs 22,207 crore. The Government has also taken action for preparation of DPRs for the balance length of 7,028 kms under Phase III B.

(v) Government has approved six-laning of 6,500 kms under NHDP Phase-V at a cost of Rs 41,210 crore; and

(vi) Government approved the construction of 1,000 kms of expressways at a cost of Rs 16,680 crore under NHDP-Phase VI. A task force headed by Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission is monitoring the progress. NHDP is estimated to cost Rs 87,000 crore. The Golden Quadrilateral part is completed by 2006 and North-South and East-West corridor by 2016.

Essay # 2. Importance of Road Transport System in Indian Economy:

Road transport system in India is having a special importance in the process of economic development of the country.

Let us now discuss these importance:

1. Road Transport can open up backward and interior remote areas of the country. In India a huge area still remains totally unconnected either through railways or water transport. Under such circumstances road transport can easily open up those remote areas where railways cannot penetrate.

2. Road transport in India is contributing significantly towards the growth of gross domestic product of the country. But in this regard, road transport in India still remains much backward.

3. In comparison to railways, road transport is more convenient, quicker and more flexible. For short distance travel and traffic, motor transport is the ideal mode of transport as it can collect and drop passenger and goods at any place. Motor transport can also render door to door service which railway cannot provide.

4. Road transport is complementary to railway and other modes of transport. It is only through feeder roads railways can collect its passengers and goods easily. Railways cannot connect villages of the country but through feeder roads, road transport can easily connect railway stations with distant villages.

5. Road transport is very much helpful to agricultural sector of the country as it provides easy and quick transportation facilities for the marketing of agricultural produce especially the perishable products like vegetables, fruits etc. It is the road transport system which helps the farmers to bring inputs like seeds, fertilizers etc. to the agricultural field along with providing a steady and ready market for their produce.

6. Road transport is very important for the industrial development of the country. Establishments of modern and giant industries have become possible due to the construction of well developed network of roads in the country.

7. Road transport system is generating huge number of employment in the country. Construction of roads is creating a huge scope for employment as it can create a good number of man-days of work to ordinary workers.

8. Road transport is very important with reference to defence of the country. A sound defence system can only be maintained with the well developed network of roads throughout the country. Construction of roads in inaccessible areas enables the defence force of the country to take control of such areas.

Regarding the importance of roads, the Seventh Plan document has rightly observed, “Since the country’s economy is largely agrarian in character and the settlement pattern is rural-oriented, roads constitute a critical element of the transportation infrastructure. Road construction and maintenance generate sizeable employment opportunities, a factor that has assumed considerable importance with demographic expansion and growth of the labour force. Better roads also achieve fuel economy and improve the overall productivity of the road transport sector. Road development will thus continue to play an important role in the Seventh Plan.”

Essay # 3. Scenario of Road Transport System in India :

In India, road transport system is rendering a valuable service to the general people in various directions of their life. Road transport in India may be classified as traditional and mechanised transport. Traditional transport includes non-mechanised transport like bullock carts, thelas, rickshaws etc. About 25 per cent of India’s trade is carried through this traditional mode of transport which directly employed nearly 2 crores of people.

Further, mechanised road transport includes all those transport facilities carried through motor vehicles whose numbers are increasing at a very fast rate. Total number of vehicles on road increased from 0.3 million in 1950-51 to 89.61 million in 2005-2006. Total number of buses has gone up from 34,000 to 9,92,000 and total number of trucks has increased from 82,000 to 44,36,000 during the same above mentioned period.

Thus the annual rate of growth of this transport was 5.4 per cent. At present, there are 66 State Road Transport Undertakings which have a total fleet of over 1.2 lakh buses on March, 1993 carrying 6.8 crore passengers daily.

Moreover, to develop inter-state routes, a Transport Development Council and Inter-State Transport Commission were established. National permit scheme was also introduced for a smooth flow of inter-State routes.

Essay # 4. Problems of Road Transport System in India:

Road transport system in India is suffering from numerous problem, as mentioned below:

(i) Unfavorable Road Conditions:

The road transport system in India is also suffering from unfavorable road conditions. Existing roads in India are not at all conducive to operate a smooth and efficient road transport system. Moreover, a large number of rural areas do not have any road linkage. In the absence of all weather roads, road transport system are facing a setback condition particularly during monsoons.

(ii) Private Ownership:

Road transport system in India is in the hands of private sector as nearly 48,000 operators are running their vehicles for this purpose. Under such a situation it becomes very difficult to regulate and control such a huge number of operators leading to inefficiency and irregularity in the system.

(iii) Excessive Tax Burden:

Road Transport in India is all along subjected to heavy and innumerable taxes like—Sales Tax, Import Duty, Vehicle Tax, Registration Fees etc. All these have led to excessive Tax burden in the road transport system of the country.

(iv) High Cost of Operation:

Unit cost of operation of road transport has been increasing day by day due to heavy taxes and duties, rise in price of fuel and spare parts and partially due to bad road conditions. Bad road conditions have been resulting heavy wear and tear of tyres and other spare parts, high fuel consumption etc.

(v) Rail-Road Competition and Co-ordination:

Rail road competition in India is a quite serious problem which affects both these two modes of transport. Such competition causes unnecessary wastage of resources. Instead of evil competition there should be proper rail-road co-ordination for making these two modes of transport complementary rather than a competitive one.

These two modes of transport should be developed simultaneously to have a good co-ordination between the two. Thus there should be a balanced growth of both these two modes of transport. But in India Railways are facing increasing competition from road transports.

As for example, the share of road transport in respect of freight has increased from 11 per cent in 1950-51 to 58 per cent in 1985-86 and then to 40 per cent in 1992. But the share of railways in respect of freight has come down from 89 per cent in 1950-51 to 42 per cent in 1985-86 and then to 60 per cent in 1992.

Same is also the case in respect of passenger traffic. Thus through evil competition road transport in India is expanding its network over railway transport. Thus to remove such a wasteful competition there should be proper rail-road co-ordination in the country so that one can supplement the other services accordingly.

Essay # 5. Suggestions for Improvement of Road Transport System in India:

Following are some of the suggestions for the improvement of road transport system in India:

(i) Development of Expressways, Bypasses and Four-Laning of Congested Corridors:

Considering the huge problem of congestion in the existing national highways, it is quite important that more national highways, expressways, bypasses and four-laning of congested corridors be constructed throughout the country for maintaining an improved road network.

(ii) Financial Policy:

The Government should design a definite financial policy for the improvement of road sector. Sufficient amount of fund should he earmarked for the construction and maintenance of roads. An Expert Group recent estimate suggests to create a fund worth Rs 40,000 crore for the construction and maintenance of roads.

The imposition of toll tax and special cess may be imposed for collecting necessary funds for the purpose. The budget of 1999-2000 proposed Rs 1 per litre cess on diesel which will raise nearly Rs 5,000 crore for the infrastructure development fund.

(iii) Private Sector Participation on BOT Scheme:

As per the amendment of the National Highway Act in 1995, private sector participation in road construction project on Build-Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis should be encouraged to develop a sound road network throughout the country. A recent study observed that about 10,000 kms expressways is required to be built by the year 2015 to meet the demand adequately.

This would cost about Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 1,00,000 crore. Another Rs 52,000 crore would be required to remove deficiencies in the existing network. Considering the present requirement, private sector participation in the road sector on BOT basis should be encouraged.

(iv) Maintenance of Existing Roads:

Considering the poor condition of existing road network, steps be taken for proper maintenance of the existing roads within the shortest possible time. The Government should earmark definite fund for proper maintenance of existing road network of the country.

(v) Technical Improvement:

Steps be taken for technical improvement of the road transport sector. The means of road transport such as motor vehicles, trucks, bus, cars etc. should adopt fuel efficient technology through technical improvement leading to fall in the unit cost of road transport.

(vi) Autonomous State Transport Corporation:

The State Transport Corporation should be made autonomous so that they can manage their affairs freely without any interference from the Government. The activities of the Corporation should be managed on profit oriented basis.

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Decarbonising India’s Transport System

This report presents an analysis of current transport activity in India and reviews key policy instruments set up by Indian institutions to shape transport developments in the coming years. It also investigates future scenarios of transport in India and outlines key aspects that should be considered in the upcoming work on transport decarbonisation. The final section builds on these insights, charting a way forward for a climate change mitigation strategy for the Indian transport sector. In particular, it underlines the importance of taking an approach that is not limited to direct GHG emission reductions but takes into account a lifecycle perspective.

This is the initial scoping paper for India within the ITF “Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies” project, funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

Go to the Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies project page

This paper is part of the Decarbonising Transport initiative

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Transport System in India (Railways, Roads, Waterways and Airways) essay

Transport system in india (railways, roads, waterways, and airways), transport system in india.

The most important means of transportation in a country are roads, railways, airways, and waterways. India has completely revolutionized its transportation system, both external and internal.

Rail Transport

Railways are the most important means of transportation in India. The improvement in railway communications in recent times has played a most important part in the internal development of the country. They have brought the different parts of the country closer.

The advent of the railway has been of special advantage to the peasantry. Social and political influences from railway construction have been no less.

Advantages of Railways

Travelling has become cheaper;
Defense of the country is less difficult.
Greater peace and order is maintained in the country, and
The spirit of nationalism has very greatly developed.

Road Transport

India has a vast network of roads, both metalled and unmetalled. However, this means of transport and communication are still inadequate for our needs. The vehicles that are mainly used on village roads are motorbuses, trucks, and bullock carts.

Before the advent of railways, roads were the only means of communication for the exportation of surplus produce. With the extension of the railway system, it has become more and more necessary to construct roads to feed the railways.

At present, the economic loss caused by the inaccessibility of many agricultural districts in the rainy season is very great. In sandy, hilly, and forest-covered tracts and in other parts of the country, where railways have not penetrated, road transport still holds an important share of long-distance traffic.

The opening of railways has created a demand for road-construction, which must be met by the local and provincial bodies. The question of developing the roads is also of vital importance. We cannot expect any significant progress in our rural economy unless there are good road connections between villages and towns.

Water transport is the oldest and cheapest form of transport. It is one of the most important external and internal means of transport in all the civilized countries of the world. It is useful for the carriage of bulky and heavy goods.

In India, we have many great river systems. However, they are unevenly distributed, some of them are fully utilized for irrigation purposes, and some others are naturally unfit for navigation.

In some parts of India, however, waterways are still extensively used for navigation purposes.

In India, more navigable rivers and canals should be made. And, a systematic policy for the development of the inland water transport should be pursued.

The question of shipping has also great importance in a country like India with a large coastline.

Air Transport System

Proper attention must also be given at the same time to air transport as another means of national and international communication. India possesses some natural advantages in this respect and they have to be fully exploited for development of airways.

The Government is taking a keen interest in the expansion of civil aviation not only for its importance as a means of transport but also because of its strategic value in the matter of national defense. There are also a large number of aerodromes in the country.

An analytic study of the above facts justifies the conclusion that the transport system of India is making good progress. The Government is providing all reasonable facilities for the development of the country’s transport. It is for the people to take advantage of the facilities offered and to step up the country’s progress in the way we desire. Millions of tons of raw materials and finished goods have to be transported over long distances and in the absence of transport facilities there will be bottlenecks in the transport of goods leading to undesirable consequences.

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Transport In India Essay | Essay on Transport In India for Students and Children in English

Transport In India Essay: Transportation systems are indispensable to any country’s progress. Without proper means of transport, the raw materials can’t be transported to industries, agricultural harvest cannot reach city godowns and finished goods can’t be deposited in markets. People also can’t commute to their place of work or study.

“Transportation system is the lifeline of any country.”

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Long and Short Essays on Transport In India for Kids and Students in English

Given below are two essays in English for students and children about the topic of ‘Transport In India’ in both long and short form. The first essay is a long essay on Transport In India of 400-500 words. This long essay about Transport In India is suitable for students of class 7, 8, 9 and 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants. The second essay is a short essay on Modes of Transport In India of 150-200 words. These are suitable for students and children in class 6 and below.

Long Essay on Transport In India 500 Words in English

Below we have given a long essay on Transport In India of 500 words is helpful for classes 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Competitive Exam Aspirants. This long essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 7 to class 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants.

The earliest means of transport in history were simply walking and swimming. After animals were domesticated, human beings used them for riding and carrying load. Invention of wheel laid the foundation of the modern transport systems. The steam engine revolutionised rail transport, while the first aircraft designed by Wright Brothers in 1903 gave an impetus to air transport.

In India, a number of transport systems, both obsolete and new, co-exist simultaneously. In Kolkata, hand driven carriages are still prevalent, despite attempts to ban them. Animal transport includejfnse of animals such as donkey, horse, mule, buffalo etc. These are more common in villages. In hilly areas, mule and yak are used to climb to higher altitudes. Road vehicle transport includes bus, auto-rickshaws, taxis, cars, scooters, bikes and bicycles. Well-developed bus services are known to operate only in few Indian cities. Over 80% of road traffic is occupied by personal instead of public transport.

However, with the advent of air-conditioned and low floor buses in most cities, people are preferring to use them, over their personal vehicles. Bengaluru was the first city in India to introduce Volvo buses in 2006 and it is also the first to establish an air-conditioned bus stop. Chennai house is one of Asia’s biggest bus terminus. The oldest Indian state transport system is that of North Bengal State Transport Corporation and is still in operation.

Taxis also run in a number of cities. The older ones used, were the Padmini or Ambassador taxis. In Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, they are hired through phone, while in Kolkata and Mumbai, they can be rented on the roads. Since 2006, radiotaxis have become quite popular owing to the safety they confer.

Auto-rickshaws or three-wheelers are also common in several cities, like Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. They may be colour-coded as black or green depending on whether they use petrol or CNG, respectively. Metro rail network is one of the latest introductions in several Indian cities. Kolkata Metro is the oldest metro, followed by the Delhi Metro, which started in 2002. The Namma Metro in Bengaluru is India’s third metro system, which began in 2011.

These metro rails have been highly successful, carrying lakhs of passengers per day. They have not only eased road traffic, but have made travel cheaper, safer and convenient. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the national body that regulates the aviation industry. Air India plays a major role in connecting India with the world. IGI Airport, Delhi is the busiest airport of India in terms of passenger traffic.

Short Essay on Transport In India 200 Words in English

Below we have given a short essay on Transport In India is for Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. This short essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 6 and below.

India also has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. There are 12 major ports in India. Vishakhapatnam Port is one of the busiest ports on the East Coast of India. Many changes brought about in India’s transport systems of late, guarantee safety for women. These include all women taxis, autos, metro rails, buses and trains. Also, more number of RPF personnel should be deployed at station premises.

Transportation is certainly becoming fuel-efficient with the use of CNG. Delhi was one of the first cities of the world to introduce CNG buses. One area that needs amends is in the friendliness towards the disabled. More vehicles should cater to the needs of handicapped, paralysed and blind people, as they are an integral part of our society.

Pedestrian safety should be ensured. Recently, the ‘Rahgiri’ initiative was launched in Delhi to encourage the habit of walking. Walking and cycling would go a long way in reducing air and noise pollution, and conserve petrol and CNG fuels too. The rail transport was facilitated greatly in Lalu Prasad’s regime as Railway Minister, with the introduction of trains such as Garib Rath for the economically weaker sections of society. Under PM Modi’s leadership, Asia’s highest rail bridge has been constructed between Jammu and Katra. A proposal is also underway for bullet trains between major cities of India.

Transport In India Essay Word Meanings for Simple Understanding

Indispensable – absolutely necessary, essential, or requisite
Pedestrian – a person who travels CQ on foot
Simultaneously- existing, occurring, or operating at the same time, concurrent
Advent – beginning
Aviation – the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft
Impetus – a moving force, impulse
Extensive – great in amount; comprehensive
Creek – a stream or channel in a coastal marsh
Integral – necessary to the completeness of the whole

India’s public transportation system: the repercussions of COVID-19

Original Research
Published: 11 April 2023
Volume 15 , pages 435–478, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

Sarthak Sahu ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9531-5301 1 ,
Saket Shanker ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6560-8779 2 ,
Aditya Kamat ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2383-6631 2 &
Akhilesh Barve 2

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The COVID-19 pandemic has left scars on the Indian public transportation system. In order to regain its original momentum, policymakers will need to assess the barriers hindering the effectiveness of the public transportation sector. In this regard, this article analyzes the various factors affecting the public transportation sector in India and determines their interrelationships. The research is presented in three steps. First, we review the literature to identify the factors that affect the public transportation system in India. Next, we propose an integrated model of grey-DEMATEL and ANP, grey-DANP, to calculate the priority ranking and weight of the factors. The grey-DEMATEL method is used to find the interrelationships among the factors, while ANP determines the local and global weights of the factors to form a priority order. Then, we present the interrelationships in the form of influential relation maps. Furthermore, we provide a sensitivity analysis to enhance the credibility of our study. The paper reveals that governmental regulations are the most influential factors in India's public transportation system. The transportation authorities and policymakers must also focus on improving the financial stability and enhancing the customer’s trust in the public transportation system. The framework provided in this paper can be applied to other countries where similar hindrances in the public transportation system have been caused by COVID-19.

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1 Introduction

With 36.5 million passengers daily, the Indian public transportation system (IPTS) is among the most heavily used transportation systems globally. About 18% of the Indian population depends on public modes of transportation for daily commuting (UITP 2020a ). Public transportation has been the backbone of the IPTS, with rail, road, air, and water services (World Bank 2014 ). India’s 5.5 million km road network is the second largest in the world and is used by billions of passengers. According to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), 65% of total passenger traffic is carried by road transport. Buses carry 90% of these passengers and form an essential constituent of road transportation. India has about 1.6 million registered buses owned by the government and private operators (Devulapalli 2019 ). Recent developments include the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network in many Indian cities (Pucher et al. 2005 ; Kathuria et al. 2016 ). The second highest passenger modal share is that of the Indian Railways (IR). The Indian Rail network is the fourth largest globally, with 74,003 coaches, 12,147 locomotives and 23 million daily passengers (Railway 2019 ). The railway also runs the suburban rail service in many cities, including coveted metro projects in selected cities. By 2023, the IR is preparing to run India’s first high-speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad (Mehta 2020 ). Regarding air transportation, domestic air traffic continued to grow and stood at 144 million passengers in 2019. Low-cost airlines proved to be more successful than full-service carriers grabbing a major share in passenger traffic while the full-service carriers continued to fall (Indian Express 2020 ).

With the advent of the pandemic, every transportation mode suffered due to a nationwide lockdown. Kumar and Sankar ( 2020 ) analyzed the passenger data before and after the lockdown in India and concluded that for the month of May 2020, the daily passenger suburban rail ridership was reduced from 13 million to zero. The number of people carried by public road transport undertaking buses (per day) also fell from 70 to 4 million. At the same time, the average daily domestic-cum-international passengers reduced from 0.55 million to 0.2 million. Naik ( 2020 ) estimated the Indian aviation sector's losses to be USD 3–3.6 billion in the June quarter. Whereas the loss to the IR was estimated to be USD 65,000 million during the lockdown, the toll revenue was also reduced by 6.5–8%. The World Bank survey showed that the bus industry faced a loss of USD 7 billion each month due to inactivity (Gupta 2020 ).

Over the last 300 years, the world has seen several significant pandemics. The severity of the Spanish flu is attributed to modern transportation modes, due to which it spread very quickly. Infected passengers and crews of ships and trains helped in increasing the area affected by the flu. Air travel has been instrumental in the spreading of viruses like SARS (2002–03) and the Avian Flu (2005) due to its convenience and ubiquity (Luke and Rodrigue 2008 ). Transportation modes can be considered to be a vector, especially in public transit modes. Once a global pandemic becomes apparent, the first step taken is ceasing international travel through the air, while domestic lockdowns occur at subsequent steps according to the situation at hand (Neister 2019 ). In this paper, we analyze the various challenges that the IPTS faces during the COVID-19 pandemic by answering the following research questions;

What are the factors affecting the public transportation system in India during the pandemic?

What are the impacts of individual factors on public transportation in India during the pandemic?

How are these factors interrelated, and what is their mutual interdependence?

What is the significance of individual factors in a consolidated decision framework?

What are the implications of the proposed study for practitioners and researchers?

Public transportation is a basic need in today’s era and needs to be acknowledged and analyzed correctly. The literature review reveals that studies have been conducted on the effect of COVID-19 on the public transportation systems of various countries. Still, none of them employs an evaluation method to determine the cause-and-effect relations between hindering barriers. Hence, this study aims to fill this research gap and answer the above questions with the help of the following research objectives:

To identify the factors affecting India's public transportation system during the pandemic and develop an interrelation framework.

To measure the cause-and-effect influence of each factor and sub-factor.

To prioritize the factors based on weightage and propose implications based on the inferences drawn by the research.

This study's main contribution is to develop an evaluation structure from multiple users using a methodology that integrates Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) into g-DANP to compute interrelationships among factors and their weights (Shanker et al. 2021b ). Many studies in the past have combined these two techniques for evaluating such real-life problems (Büyüközkan and Güleryüz, 2016 ; Supeekit et al. 2016 ; Govindan et al. 2018 ; Shanker et al. 2021a ). In g-DANP, the grey-DEMATEL method is used to determine interconnections between the factors, whereas ANP improves the weighing presumptions in the evaluation model (Büyüközkan and Güleryüz, 2016 ).

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2 , we review the literature on India's public transportation system and the literature on our research methodology. Section 3 discusses the factors that influence the public transportation system in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors assist the decision-makers in formulating the appropriate strategies to tackle the issue. Section 4 discusses the proposed framework for the case illustration, followed by Sect. 5 , where we present the results and discussions. Section 6 presents the sensitivity analysis for improving the authenticity of this study. Section 7 discusses the implications for practice and research, and finally, Sect. 8 delivers the concluding remarks.

2 Literature review

2.1 literature review of indian public transport.

India is among the fastest-growing economies in Asia but faces inadequate transportation infrastructure to meet demands, thus affecting its economic growth and development (Ng and Tongzon 2010 ). According to World Bank ( 2010 ), India’s road density is 0.66 km/km 2 , higher than the USA and China's road density, but these roads are narrow, congested, and of poor service quality. Ng and Gujar ( 2009 ) state that the policies should be consistent with political realities for proper growth and development. This is especially hampering the growth of railways. According to Reddy and Balachandra ( 2011 ), a major result of an increase in per-capita income is that private car ownership in urban India is much higher than private car ownership in rural India. This is leading to more congested roads. After studying Gurugram, Narain ( 2009 ) concluded that a city’s structure and travel demands of private or transit cars highly depend on urban planning. A highly efficient public transportation system encourages the use of public transportation rather than opting for private modes. The main mode of the daily commute in Indian cities, i.e., buses, are overly used due to the lack of a proper rail system and have low standards compared to developed countries. Reddy and Balachandra ( 2011 ) identified the key challenges facing transportation in India: urbanization and transportation demand, inefficiency in public transportation systems, externalities like pollution and congestion, institutional weakness, and political instability. Verma et al. ( 2011 ) emphasize the need of sustainable transportation as it has a positive impact on the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the community. It was discovered that inadequate infrastructure, policies, and poor facilities discourage people from using non-motorized transport (NMT) modes in India.

According to Mani et al. ( 2012 ), safety is an essential factor that decides public transportation usage. The WHO ( 2013 ) deemed India’s roads dangerous, with the most significant number of road fatalities globally at 866 per million vehicles. The National Urban Transport Policy 2006 is an essential step in ensuring a safe and efficient transportation system. According to Tiwari ( 2011 ), better bus services, improved intermediate public transportation systems, and proper enforcement of road speed limits are the three most important factors in improving public transportation systems in India. The author also advises that road and traffic standards should be renewed every two years, and segregated lanes for non-motorized vehicles (NMV) should be constructed. Auto rickshaws can play a vital role in developing an efficient transportation system as they provide first and last-mile and door-to-door connectivity.

Nevertheless, the absence of an organization and the emissions of harmful particulate matter are the primary concerns to be solved (Mani et al. 2012 ). The average journey speed on Indian roads is very low, especially in high vehicle ownership cities. The average speed in most metro cities was below 20 km/h (Nama et al. 2016 ). Road congestion is still a complex problem even after sub-urban rail connectivity in metro cities. Policies for easing congestion include better integrated urban planning, the promotion of public transportation, and an intelligent transportation system promotion.

Long delays and red-tapism in transportation infrastructure projects in India are a big concern. The delays decrease the project's financial stability by increasing the total costs and decreasing the customer’s trust (Patil 2013 ). Despite having a tremendous scope, Rahul and Verma ( 2013 ) found that the NMT is not showing any growth in India due to a lack of infrastructural provisions. NMTs can go a long way in reducing congestion costs, decreasing the death rates on Indian roads, and ensuring a safer environment. Suppose 1% of the population shifts to NMT modes for trip distances less than 5 km. In that case, the expected benefits can be about USD 3.4 thousand per day, including social costs, infrastructural costs, congestion costs, health costs, etc. Apart from the government-run public transportation modes, there are also lots of privately run or ‘informal’ public transportation modes consisting of auto-rickshaws, Tata Magics, and Vikram's that cater to a large share of the population (Kumar et al. 2016b ). These private modes of transport also include the likes of taxis and cab services, two-wheelers, cars, and jeeps. Of the ‘informal’ modes of transport, the greatest in use for work travel are two-wheelers at 33% and cars at 14% (Eregowda et al. 2021 ). Other modes of private transport include the hailing of auto-rickshaws and booking of cabs from online services. These informal modes are still active due to government-run public transportation modes' low capacity and inefficiency (Jaiswal et al. 2021 ). According to Ponodath et al. ( 2018 ), the government considers these informal modes unsafe and excludes them from transportation policies. The Indian government should acknowledge these modes' value and help them grow to ensure an efficient transportation system. Paladugula et al. ( 2018 ) project the transportation sector's energy intake to increase by 4.1–6.5% every year till 2050, increasing India’s dependency on oil. Thus, the authors suggest that public transportation and NMT modes should be encouraged by the government. Saripalle ( 2018 ) claims that the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST) by India’s government will help the transportation sector move from labor-intensive processes to capital-intensive and automated processes. Ahmad and Chang ( 2020 ) studied all the transportation policies of India and concluded that the Indian transportation system's biggest problem is the lack of implementation of policies.

The IPTS, which was already facing problems, including inefficiency and vulnerability, was hit hard by the unforeseeable COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the pandemic's economic impacts on the Indian transportation sector, Singh and Neog ( 2020 ) conclude that lockdowns in the country have contributed to the shutting down of both public and private transportation modes affecting the demand and supply in the economy. National and private airlines, which are already running in losses, will face severe survival issues. Decreased revenue generation from road and rail transportation will also affect the government treasury. Harikumar ( 2020 ) wrote that India's energy demand fell by 11% in March due to the cancellation of flights and other transportation bookings. Owing to an increased risk of being infected, public transportation modes' demand and occupancy have become very low. Risks associated with the spreading of the virus deter more people from traveling through public modes. Further dissuading the public from using transport is an abhorrent behavior of the staff, and in the case of Indian rail transport, a poor refund process and delay in operational activities (Mishra and Panda 2022 ). The effect on informal public transportation modes is expected to be much more severe than that on organized modes. UITP ( 2020b ) provided an overview of bus operators' challenges during the lockdown. These challenges were segregated into four key areas: operational and service delivery, financial management, crew management-related, and fleet management-related. Government guidelines have also increased the operating costs for operators who are already facing low occupancies. The biggest challenges during the post-COVID era will be operators' financial constraints to sustain operations, low patronage due to fear of safety, lower service availability, and an increase in fares (Mishra and Panda 2022 ). According to Gupta ( 2020 ), the COVID-19 pandemic is an excellent opportunity for India to promote sustainable mobility.

Similar research has focused on the impact of COVID-19 in other nations, such as the survey-based study conducted by Munawar et al. ( 2021 ). This manuscript highlighted three main sectors of transport, i.e., air, freight, and public transport, in the Australian transportation sector. They declared that public transport was reduced by over 80% and made it clear that the transport sector's recovery depends on the relaxation of COVID-19 containment policies and financial support from the government. Further studies on reducing the challenges faced by public transport due to COVID-19 have heavily implied the necessity of tailored government regulations (Tirachini and Cats 2020 ). The authors have suggested specifying restrictions based on the risk of contagion to a specific community in order to increase safety and decrease the deterrence of users. Furthermore, studies spanning multiple countries, such as the USA, members of the EU, China, and India, draw attention to the perception of public transport (Abu-Rayash and Dincer 2020 ). This argument is of utmost importance because, if public transportation is perceived as unsafe by a majority of the population, it will not be able to fulfill its role of being an accessible mode of transport (Sikarwar et al. 2021 ). One of the largest factors that may help with public perception is the removal of government-mandated lockdowns. This will help assure the public that adequate measures have been taken and may improve public relations.

2.2 Literature review of g-DEMATEL and ANP methodology

The analysis of factors affecting public transportation in India during the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex decision-making process. The problem itself involves many factors, each requiring quantitative and qualitative assessment. It is observed that real-world scenarios, such as the situation considered for this study, consist of multiple conflicting problems. Also, there is never enough time, staffing, or resources to deal with all barriers. Therefore, it is necessary to use a decision-making technique to analyze the factors identified in the literature review. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques are well known for situations that include conflicting objectives, the presence of numerous factors, and a hierarchical structure (Demirel et al. 2010 ). In many real-life cases, specialists feel that a single technique is not enough to reach a logical decision and recommend a mix of MCDM techniques (Govindan et al. 2018 ; Singh and Bhanot 2020 ; Li and He 2021 ) . The use of the MCDM technique helps in two ways: it decreases the problem's multi-faceted nature and helps in an in-depth analysis of the issue (Kumar and Anbanandam 2020 ). This study uses a hybrid MCDM technique to discover the nature of interdependencies, interrelationships, and prioritization of the factors influencing public transportation in India during the pandemic.

The DEMATEL strategy is utilized to discover the cause-effect interdependencies of the factors in terms of relation values, while the relative significance is determined by the prominence value of variables (Gölcük and Baykasoğlu 2016 ). DEMATEL cannot be used to dictate the priority weight of variables; however, ANP helps in processing the structural reliability of the problem (Büyüközkan et al. 2017 ). The ANP technique demands a pairwise correlation of criteria and also checks the pairwise decision matrix for consistency (Govindan et al. 2018 ). The mixture of DEMATEL and ANP decreases the complexity of the problem and assists in identifying the global impact of factors (Büyüközkan and Güleryüz 2016 ; Kumar and Anbanandam 2020 ). As DEMATEL does not need pairwise examinations, the multi-faceted nature of the decision variables is reduced (Tadić et al. 2014 ). Thus, it is preferred to feature the interrelationship among the identified factors (Govindan et al. 2018 ; Li et al. 2020 ). The above-mentioned advantages of combining DEMATEL and ANP improve computational investigation (Abikova 2020 ).

In the DANP, DEMATEL is used for gathering information, finding the interrelationships, and measuring the interdependencies, while ANP is used for deriving the unweighted super-matrix, weighted super-matrix, and the limiting matrix to process the influential weight of individual components (Abikova 2020 ). Grey theory can be combined with various MCDM techniques to improve the accuracy of the decision-making process (Xia et al. 2015 ; Chithambaranathan et al. 2015 ). The MCDM based on the grey system depends on the fact that it would provide accurate outcomes even with limited information and provide a state of fuzziness (Rahimnia et al. 2011 ). The benefit of using a grey system over fuzzy methodology is that it does not require any robust fuzzy enrolment function (Xia et al. 2015 ). In the past, multiple MCDM techniques have been used by researchers to evaluate the multiple conflicting criteria. Techniques such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and Elimination and Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE) have been used extensively to analyze the relationship between factors (Supeekit et al. 2016 ). However, unlike ANP, these methodologies are not apt to deal with the interdependencies between the factors. According to Raj and Sah ( 2019 ), including DEMATEL in the study enables easy visualization of causal relationships through causal diagrams. The proposed g-DANP methodology is more accurate and decreases the computational complexity of the decision-problem. Grey systems theory is preferred over fuzzy theory as it does not require any fuzzy membership function (Kumar and Anbanandam 2020 ). The methodology works in two stages (Appendix 1 ) for computing the interrelationships and prioritization of the factors affecting public transportation in India during the pandemic.

3 Factors influencing the public transportation system in India during the Pandemic

Analyzing the relationships between the multiple criteria and proposing a proper model is a significant task (Tran et al. 2020 ). The development of the model begins with a literature review, which leads to differentiating the factors based on their influence. For this purpose, data for factors and their sub-factors are collected from literature reviews, reports, and expert opinions. The sub-factors were chosen from the literature review due to the frequency of manuscripts that mentioned them or the high rating imposed on them by other studies. Then, the factors are categorized under five principal dimensions: Operational, Infrastructural, Financial, Behavioral, and Governmental Regulations. A detailed discussion of the factors and their sub-factors is presented in this section.

3.1 Operational factors (O)

The factors that affect the day-to-day performance of public transportation are known as operational factors (Tang et al. 2018 ). Operational factors are more concerned with running, scheduling, and managing the system and are aimed at creating an efficient transportation system (Parkan 2002 ; Yeboah et al. 2019 ). Table 1 (a) gives a description of operational factors that affect the public transportation system.

3.2 Infrastructural factors (I)

These factors deal with the structures and systems necessary for the operation of transportation systems (Hossain 2019 ). Transport infrastructure is different for different modes. Roads, bus fleets, and terminals constitute the road infrastructure, while loco fleets, rail tracks, and railway stations constitute the rail infrastructure. Transit stations and ticketing infrastructure are also important components (Skorobogatova and Kuzmina-Merlino 2017 ). Table 1 (b) talks about the impact of infrastructural factors on the public transportation system.

3.3 Financial factors (F)

Financial factors consider many money-related decisions and results, like how much profit the company makes and how much it costs to run the system (Xu et al. 2018 ; Arora et al. 2022 ). Achieving financial stability is important for any transportation system, and it leads to more research and development (R&D) in the sector (Efthymiou et al. 2018 ). Table 1 (c) discusses the financial factors that affect the public transportation system.

3.4 Behavioral factors (B)

The factors affecting the transportation system that depend on the passengers, i.e., the service consumer, are behavioral factors. (Kaewkluengklom et al. 2017 ). These depend upon the perception of the services in their eyes. Behavioral factors differ from person to person and prove to be a major factor influencing the use of public transportation services (Yeboah et al. 2019 ). Table 1 (d) talks about various behavioral factors and their effect on the public transportation system.

3.5 Governmental regulations (G)

The government has laid down several rules and regulations for the proper functioning of the transportation system during this pandemic (Tirachini and Cats 2020 ). Apart from the nationwide lockdown, several other temporary lockdowns were also imposed at various levels to check the spread of the virus. These regulations have brought losses to this sector, leading to ceased growth (Mayo and Taboada 2020 ). Table 1 (e) discusses the effect of governmental regulations on the public transportation system.

4 The proposed framework

We have selected the case of factors influencing public transportation in India during the COVID-19 pandemic to validate the framework we have prepared. In this study, primary data and a literature review were used to collect information. Primary data was collected through interviews with academic researchers and industry stakeholders. The interviews were conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. Each interview with the experts detailed in Appendix 2 lasted for approximately 50–80 min. The chosen factors were explained to the experts along with the provided linguistic scale. These experts' responses were collected after an explanation of the sub-factors in the study. In the successive section, we describe the process of data assortment and analysis. Further details on the methodology can be found in Appendix 1 .

4.1 Determining the interrelationships among the factors and sub-factors affecting public transport

This segment depicts the interrelationships of the factors and sub-factors mentioned in Sect. 3 . The steps of grey-DEMATEL are as follows:

Step 1 : Formulation of direct relationship and crisp relation matrix ‘A’.

The initial matrix is generated by gathering the linguistic data from the twelve selected experts (refer to Appendix 2 ). The decision-makers were chosen from academia and industry based on their years of experience in the related fields. These ratings are then converted on the greyscale (Table 2 ). Thus, twelve individual 22x22 matrices are obtained. The crisp relationship matrix is then prepared using Eq. ( 7 ).

Step 2: Obtain normalized crisp relationship matrix ‘B’

We normalize the initial crisp relationship matrix using Eq. ( 9 ) and Eq. ( 10 ).

Step 3: Calculate total influence matrix ‘T’

The total influence matrix is calculated from the normalized matrix ‘B’ using Eq. ( 11 ). The matrix ‘T’ is given in Table 3 .

Step 4: Formulation of the sum of rows ‘ \({R}_{i}\) ’ and the sum of columns ‘ \({D}_{j}\) ’.

Using Eq. ( 12 ), we calculate the total influence given and received by each factor, as shown in Table 4 .

Step 5: Plot the ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ digraph

Plot cause and effect digraph based on the influence received and given by the dimensions and sub-components. An influence map is made for each of the main factors, which shows the interrelationships between its subfactors. The influential diagrams of dimensions and sub-components are depicted in Figs. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 .

Influence relation map of main dimensions

Influence Relation Map of Operational Factors

Influence Relation Map of Infrastructural Factors

Influence Relation Map of Financial Factors

Influence Relation Map of Behavioral Factors

Influence Relation Map of Governmental Regulation Factors

4.2 Weight of dimensions and criteria through g-DANP

In continuation to the g-DANP method, the following steps were used to find the priorities of factors.

Step 6: Calculation of unweighted super-matrix (W).

With the help of Eqs. ( 14 ) and ( 17 ), we obtain the unweighted super-matrix \(W\) ( \(i.e.,W=({{T}_{c}^{\alpha })}^{^{\prime}}\) ) from the total influence matrix (T). Then, we normalize the total influence matrix with the help of Eqs. ( 19 ) and ( 20 ).

Step 7: Formulate the weighted super-matrix \(({W}^{\alpha })\)

The weight of the super-matrix (i.e., \({W}^{\alpha }={T}_{D}^{\alpha } \times W\) ) is calculated by using Eq. ( 21 ).

Step 8: Limit the weighted super-matrix

The final weights are calculated by limiting the power of the weighted super-matrix \(\underset{k\to \infty }{\mathrm{lim}}{{(W}^{\alpha })}^{k}\) , where \(k\) should have a high value. The stable matrix of g-DANP is depicted in Table 5 . Each row represents the weight of individual factors. The proposed framework gives the global importance of factors, as summarized in Table 6 .

5 Results and discussion

The case-based result analysis of the dimensions and their sub-components are presented at the combined and individual dimensional levels.

Tables 4 and 7 show the influence analysis of main factors and report that Operational factors (O), Governmental regulations (G) and Behavioral factors (B) fall in the cause category. In contrast, Infrastructural factors (I) and Financial factors (F) fall into the effect category. This implies that ‘F’ and ‘I’ are the highly influenced dimensions while ‘O’, ‘B’ and ‘G’ are influencing dimensions. Figure 1 represents the graphical relationship between the main factors. As ‘G’ is the main factor with both the highest prominence and relation value, it can be understood that Government regulations are the priority barrier hindering the public transportation system in India during the pandemic. The figure reveals that by solving the issues related to Government regulations, not only will the largest cause of disturbance for Indian public transport be solved, other main factors will be affected, too.

The prominence ( \({R}_{i}\) + \({D}_{i}\) ) values from Table 4 show that Governmental Regulations (G) obtained the highest score (0.562). The score depicts that it has a very strong influence on public transportation in India during the pandemic. Thus, ‘G’ should be considered the most crucial factor among all the factors affecting public transportation. From ( \({R}_{i}\) - \({D}_{i}\) ) values, ten sub-factors have been classified into the ‘Cause’ group and 12 sub-factors into the ‘Effect’ group. The ranking for the cause group is G1 > G2 > G3 > B2 > B4 > B1 > F3 > B3 > O8 > I2. This result suggests that ‘Nationwide lockdown (G1)’ is the most causal factor which affects the public transportation system in India. The ranking of ‘Effect group’ is F1 > O2 > O1 > I1 > F2 > O4 > O5 > O3 > O6 > I3 > F4 > O7. Thus, decreased profits, a reduced number of trips, and low occupancy are the main effects of the pandemic on the public transportation system in India.

5.1 Operational factors

From Table 4 , we can see that all the sub-factors except O8 fall in the effect category. Their relative ranking is Reduced number of trips (O2), Low seat occupancy (O1), Increased waiting time at transit stations (O4), Reduced interchange connectivity (O5), Shortage of workforce (O3), Reduced accessibility (O6), Lesser driver necessities (O7) with ratings of 2.256, 2,151, 1.486, 1.485, 1.46, and 1.419, respectively. As evident by its placement above the x-axis, Increased operational costs (O8) is the only cause factor among these sub-factors (refer to Fig. 2 ). Also, the factors on the far right of the figure, i.e., Reduced number of trips and Low seat occupancy, are among the major affected operational factors due to their high prominence values. Other studies have come to a similar conclusion regarding effectively managing a limited capacity. Munawar et al. ( 2021 ) suggest implementing a queuing system to compensate for the reduced accessibility. However, this solution would be limited to scenarios where digital billing is already available. Furthermore, Bandyopadhyay ( 2020 ) suggests public transport should limit itself to use by essential workers and medical staff, thus mitigating some of the social equity ramifications. This suggestion also coincides with our results regarding factor O3. Similarly, policymakers will need to explore new ways to recruit and train additional workers and plan for absenteeism, accounting for new problems as they arise.

5.2 Infrastructural factors

Of the three infrastructural sub-factors, two are counted into the ‘effect’ category, while the third one belongs to the ‘cause’ category (Table 4 ). Lesser active fleet (I1) and Reduced last mile connectivity (I3) belong to the effect category with ratings of 2.104 and 1.373. Their placement in the effect category is evident from their position below the x-axis in Figure 3 . Lack of e-ticketing and e-payment infrastructure (I2) is the only cause sub-factor. This shows that the improvement of e-ticketing and payment infrastructure can help in improving the public transportation infrastructure in India. This conclusion is further supported by the results of Tirachini and Cats ( 2020 ), discussing the implications of COVID-19 on public transportation. One major factor towards revitalizing public transport is e-booking and queuing systems. This will be a boon in managing service capabilities and ensuring physical distancing requirements. Beck et al. ( 2021 ) also support the results that reduced last-mile connectivity will lead citizens towards employing private transportation methods. The operations of many public transportation modes need to be updated while maintaining the safety of their workers. Another major concern stems from factor I1. A lesser active fleet size is bound to see a quicker deterioration of public transport facilities. Our findings also match Mogaji ( 2020 ), who suggests an updated management system for maintaining appropriate services and standards.

5.3 Financial factors

From Fig. 4 , we can see that three of the four financial factors, which fall below the x-axis, come under the effect category, which are Declined profits (F1), Increased market risk (F2) and Increased unplanned expenses (F4) with values of 2.365, 1.779, and 1.35, respectively. Increased expenditure on safety procedures and equipment (F3) is the only cause sub-factor with a value of 1.734. Thus, if we find a way to reduce the expenditure, the profits can increase, making the transportation system financially stable. Similar studies have also suggested using government grants to maintain transport supply and observing vehicles' social distancing measures (Munawar et al. 2021 ). They have concluded that without government intervention, the financial risks faced by the public transportation sector will continue post-COVID-19. Mogaji ( 2020 ) also suggests that governments should work with transport unions to curb an increase in post-pandemic fares. The increased market risk of public transport also incentivizes more people to opt for private transportation. Middle-income citizens will begin to prefer motorcycles and auto-rickshaws over standard means of public transport. These results imply that travelers will make their decisions based on their sense of security in public transport and prefer to take larger financial risks for safety.

5.4 Behavioral factors

In our analysis, we can see that all the behavioral factors fall into the cause category (refer to Fig. 5 ). The relative order of their prominence is Reduced reliability on Public transportation (B3) > Fear of negligence of social distancing norms (B2) > Lack of passenger’s confidence in the hygiene of public transportation (B1) > Lesser need for travel (B4), with values 2.521, 1.901, 1.822, and 1.606, respectively. This shows that behavioral factors contribute a lot to public transportation usage by people. The population's decision to adopt public transportation depends heavily on their perception of its safety. This effect is consistent with the findings of previous studies (Dong et al. 2021 ). Furthermore, as government regulations remain in effect, most people's priority will be to avoid public spaces for fear of others neglecting social norms. Similar studies describe a state of anxiety that can negatively affect a passenger’s perception of safety (Lau et al. 2006 ). Investing in proper sanitation and ensuring adequate social distancing norms can rebuild people's trust in the transportation system. Further, Mogaji ( 2020 ) suggests properly managing existing infrastructure as that increases the reputation of public transport in the eyes of the public. As all these factors are causal in nature, they must be dealt with first in order to calm the public (refer to Fig. 5 ).

5.5 Governmental regulations

All the Governmental Regulations fall in the cause category (Table 4 ). The order of importance is Nationwide lockdown (G1) > Frequent temporary shutdowns at various levels (G2) > Sealing of state borders due to lockdown (G3). Their values are 2.024, 1.816 and 1.522, respectively. All these sub-factors belong to the ‘cause’ category because they influence the other factors mentioned above. The government can interfere, regulate, and change the rules, which affects the operational, infrastructural, financial, behavioral, and, thus, public transportation usage. From the above analysis, we recommend giving some ease to the lockdown at various levels for the smooth functioning of the public transportation system. Similar studies have suggested that governments should enact specialized restrictions according to the population's needs (Wielechowski et al. 2020 ). In order to gain the trust of the public, it is a necessity that government regulations be lessened while maintaining safety precautions. Other researchers also mention that vaccinating the population would solve a majority of these issues; however, this action lies outside the domain of public transport (Beck et al. 2020 ). In a similar study in China, Shen et al. ( 2020 ) found that stricter regulations must be followed at the local level, taking into account individual cases instead of temporarily shutting down service. The diagonal nature of their placement in Fig. 6 gives a clear order for which government regulations sub-factor must be dealt with first. ‘G1’ is not only the most prominent of the three sub-factors, but solving the issues relating to ‘G1’ also helps regarding the barriers ‘G2’ and ‘G3’.

5.6 Prioritization of factors based on g-DANP

Considering the factors affecting the public transportation system in India during the COVID-19 pandemic as multi-dimensional, a single model cannot explain the phenomena fully. To compensate for some disadvantages of DEMATEL, we have used the g-DANP methodology. Table 6 shows the weight of every dimension and its sub-factors. The local importance of each sub-factor is calculated by dividing global weight by dimension weight. From Table 6 , Lesser active fleet (I1), Reduced profits (F1), Increased market risk (F2), Reduced reliability on public transportation from the passenger’s perspective (B3), and Reduced last mile connectivity (I3) are the top five sub-factors affecting the public transportation system in India during the pandemic. This analysis can help policymakers and managers work in the right direction and take adequate measures to uplift the public transportation system. Table 8 shows the precise analysis which can be used to develop strategies for specific causes.

6 Sensitivity analysis

We face several questions while discussing the results of this paper: How does the selection of decision-makers affect the results? What is the extent of this effect on the results? What is the role of personal bias in the variation of data? Is there any way to determine the credibility of the results and to prove that it is not affected by personal bias? To solve these questions, we performed a sensitivity analysis. According to Shanker et al. ( 2021a ), a sensitivity analysis is a famous practice that determines the stability of the results when the input values are varied marginally. Since human decisions constitute the primary input of this study, a sensitivity analysis can be used to scrutinize the results (Kamat et al. 2022 ).

The analysis concludes that financial factors hold the highest priority among all the main factors (Table 6 ). Thus, financial factors can influence other factors as well. To illustrate the influence of financial factors on other sub-factors, we performed a sensitivity analysis. We varied the initial weight of ‘F’ in increments from 0.1 to 0.9 and then redistributed the weights among the other main factors (Table 9 ). As the weightage of financial factors changed, the weight of sub-factors also changed. In Case 1, when the financial factor weightage is 0.1, ‘I1’ and ‘B3’ hold the first and second positions, respectively, while ‘F3’ stands last (Table 10 ). ‘I1’ holds the top priority until the financial factors' weight reaches 0.286, which is the normal value. From 0.3 to 0.9, ‘F1’ acquires the top position and the rank trend continues till the last case, i.e., Case 9. Figure 7 illustrates the ranking of sub-factors according to the sensitivity analysis. As shown in Table 10 , many sub-factors maintain the same rank over numerous trials. Thus, their lines in Fig. 7 overlap and the ten individual trials cannot be observed. The analysis concludes that the variations in the weight of financial factors lead to a change in the relative ranking of other factors. Thus, policymakers, managers, and operators in the transportation industry need to ensure the sector's financial stability. The results of the sensitivity analysis align well with the normal case in the study. This analysis improves the credibility of the study and also authenticates the results.

Ranking trend of sub-factors during sensitivity analysis

7 Implications for practice and research

The government and other authorities can use the proposed g-DANP evaluation framework for a valid assessment of factors and to develop a strategic plan for uplifting the public transportation sector in India during COVID-19. Grey DEMATEL was integrated with ANP to determine causal relationships and importance weights for developing a framework. The managerial contributions of this study are as follows:

To improve the public transportation sector, policymakers would have to pay more attention to the ‘cause’ factors to reduce the influence of the ‘effect’ barriers.

This research provides a list of factors with priority rankings. Policymakers and managers can use this list to develop appropriate policies.

The study reveals that government regulations are the key ‘cause’ factors affecting India's public transportation sector. Relaxation in governmental regulations like easing inter-state connections and lockdown norms can play a crucial role in the rise of the public transportation sector in India.

By going through the factor interrelationships, we observe that reduced reliability on public transportation from the passengers’ perspective (B3) is the prime cause factor. Transportation operators must take steps to gain passengers’ trust in public transportation as behavioral factors highly influence public transportation.

The study reveals that Reduced profits (F1) is the most affected factor. The result is verified by performing a sensitivity analysis, in which F1 remains a highly rated factor throughout all cases. This is due to increased operational expenses. Decisions taken to reduce overheads and operational costs will play a crucial role in mitigating this externality.

The study also forms a hierarchical structure that can be used to analyze the various factors affecting India's public transportation system during the COVID-19 pandemic. This will help in setting priorities and working accordingly.

The paper presents a general framework for all the organizations in the transportation sector. The same framework with modified initial values can be used to provide the ranking list for specific organizations for their specific needs.

8 Concluding remarks

The effect of COVID-19 on the public transportation system in India is a critical research area that provides a more in-depth analysis for the development of appropriate policies. An analysis of the cause and effect factors is needed to improve the condition of the public transportation sector. In complex decision-making and assessment processes like this problem, there are various factors that need subjective and qualitative judgments. Thus, MCDM techniques can adequately process the various interdependencies and relationships between the identified factors. The analysis is done by a coordinated MCDM technique, i.e., a mixture of grey-DEMATEL and ANP.

The study first identified factors through a literature survey, then, using g-DANP, analyzed the results in two phases. First, as the interrelationships between the factors using g-DEMATEL, then as the weights and rankings that we have assigned to each factor through ANP. Twelve of the twenty-two factors were regarded as ‘effect’ factors, while the remaining ten were regarded as ‘cause’ factors. The results of the study indicate that the most hindering factors towards Indian public transport are those caused by government regulations. Public perception is one of public transport's most important critical success factors. If restrictions are kept in place for the use of public transportation, then people will naturally be hesitant towards the safety of such transportation. The study also emphasized the behavioral factors' effect on the public transportation system. Another lesson learned is that financial factors should not be the focus of public transport recovery. The sub-factors listed under the financial category are mostly those that are influenced by the solution of other barriers.

Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed to verify the rankings' consistency and prove that this paper's results are not influenced by bias. Policymakers can use the framework prepared in this paper to take appropriate steps toward improving the public transportation sector. The present study also accentuated that no similar study identifies and analyzes the factors affecting public transportation in India during the pandemic utilizing these procedures. Thus, this paper fills a gap by using g-DANP to find the interrelationships between factors and the significance of their weights.

A limitation of this study is that studies like these can also be done using intuitionistic fuzzy environments, allowing us to consider further hesitancy. Another limitation is the lack of input from private industry personnel. Including the perspective of experts in the industry from the private sector would have led to a sharper analysis of the situation. This would allow a detailed comparative analysis between public and private transportation scenarios and the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on them. Future studies in this topic can be on developing an index for weighing the level of readiness of public transportation through various factors.

Availability of data and material

All data used for the study has been provided in the appropriate tables.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude towards the industry experts for their valuable support in evaluating the proposed framework. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers of this paper for their valuable comments on improving the quality of this manuscript.

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Appendix 1: A hybrid MCDM model combined with Grey-DEMATEL and ANP

Grey-DEMATEL Method :

The Grey-DEMATEL method is applied through the following steps;

Step 1: Compute the direct relation matrix

The initial information is obtained from the specialists and presented in the direct relation matrix of size \(n\times n\) . In this matrix ‘ A ’, every component \({a}_{ij}\) is indicated as the impact of component \(i\) over \(j\) . Let us consider, \(\otimes C_{ij}^{e}\) characterized as the grey number for a specialist \(^{\prime}e^{\prime}\) , which gives assessment data of factor \(i\) ’s influence on factor \(j\) . Then, \(\overline{ \otimes }C_{ij}^{e}\) and \(\underline { \otimes } C_{ij}^{e}\) are the upper and lower estimations of a given number \(\otimes C_{ij}^{e}\) , i.e.,

Step 2: Calculation of the average grey relation matrix (AGRM).

The AGRM \(\otimes \tilde{C}_{ij}^{e}\) is formulated from \(Q\) grey relation matrices as,

Step 3: Formulation of crisp relation matrix.

In this formulation, a defuzzification technique is applied to change grey relation to crisp relation by using to convert fuzzy data into the crisp score (CFCS) strategy (Opricovic and Tzeng 2003 ). The crisp transformation follows a three-stage technique:

i. Normalization:

where \(\overline{ \otimes }\hat{C}_{ij}^{{}}\) is defined as the normalized upper limit of a given grey number \(\otimes C_{ij}^{{}}\) , and

where \(\underline { \otimes } \hat{C}_{ij}^{{}}\) represents the lower value of the given grey number \(\otimes C_{ij}^{{}}\) .

The value of \(\Delta_{min}^{max}\) is calculated as follows;

Formulation of the total normalized crisp value;

Calculate the final crisp values;

Step 4: Formulate the normalized direct crisp relation matrix

A normalized crisp relation matrix of initial relationship can be processed through the accompanying equation. Let ‘ B ’ be a normalized crisp relation matrix, then

where \(U\) is a normalization factor given by;

Step 5: Compute the total relation matrix.

In this step, a total relation matrix (T) is calculated with the given equation,

where \(I\) is the identity matrix and \({t}_{ij}\) are the corresponding values in matrix \(T\) .

Step 6: Formulate the prominence and relation of each factor

where \({R}_{i}\) and \({D}_{j}\) represent the sum of the ith row elements and the sum of the jth column elements in \(T,\) respectively.

When \(i=j\) , \(({R}_{i}+{D}_{j})\) is the “Prominence” which shows the importance degree that factor \(i\) plays in the entire analysis. Similarly, \(({R}_{i}-{D}_{j})\) is called “Relation” and determines whether a factor will be classified in the cause and effect group.

Step 7: Calculate the total relationship matrix (TRM) threshold and plot the cause & effect graph

The value of the threshold is equal to the sum of the mean matrix value and of one standard deviation of the matrix T. In a digraph, the relationship is drawn with the help of a dataset of \([({R}_{i}+{D}_{j}),({R}_{i}-{D}_{j}) ] \,\forall i=j\) .

Integration of Grey-DEMATEL and ANP Methods :

Step 1: Calculate an unweighted super-matrix ‘ W ’

\({T}_{D}\) and \({T}_{c}\) are the total influence matrix of main factors (Dimensions) and sub-factors (criteria), respectively, which are obtained by the grey-DEMATEL method.

Let \({T}_{c}\) be given by Eq. ( 13 ).

The normalized TRM for criteria is denoted as \({T}_{c}^{\alpha }\) , which is obtained from normalizing the total influence matrix of criteria \({T}_{c}\) , is given by Eq. ( 14 ).

Normalized element \({T}_{c}^{\alpha 11}\) is explicated in detail in Eqs. ( 15 ) and ( 16 ).

The unweighted super-matrix is formulated by transposing the normalized TRM for criteria as shown in Eq. ( 17 ).

Step 2: Calculate the Weighted Super-matrix

To calculate the weighted super-matrix, the TRM for main factors (Dimensions) were considered as shown in Eq. ( 19 ).

Then, normalization of TRM ‘ \({T}_{D}\) ’ is done and a new matrix ‘ \({T}_{D}^{\alpha }\) ’ is obtained as shown in Eq. ( 20 ).

The weighted super-matrix ( \({W}^{\alpha }\) ) is obtained with the help of Eq. ( 21 );

Step 3: Limit the weighted super-matrix.

To acquire a stable and converged matrix, the weighted super-matrix which we got in the last step is to be limited by expanding to a satisfactorily large power k to fulfil the above prerequisites, which will finally result in global priority scores, which are called grey-DANP (grey-DEMATEL based ANP) influential weights, such as \(\underset{k\to \infty }{\mathrm{lim}}{{(W}^{\alpha })}^{k}\) , where \(k\) represents any number of power (Govindan et al. 2018 ).

Appendix 2: Detailed Information about Experts

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Sahu, S., Shanker, S., Kamat, A. et al. India’s public transportation system: the repercussions of COVID-19. Public Transp 15 , 435–478 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12469-023-00320-z

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1 Introduction

2 Literature review

2.2 Literature review of g-DEMATEL and ANP methodology

3 Factors influencing the public transportation system in India during the Pandemic

3.1 Operational factors (O)

3.2 Infrastructural factors (I)

3.3 Financial factors (F)

3.4 Behavioral factors (B)

3.5 Governmental regulations (G)

4 The proposed framework

4.1 Determining the interrelationships among the factors and sub-factors affecting public transport

4.2 Weight of dimensions and criteria through g-DANP

5 Results and discussion

5.1 Operational factors

5.2 Infrastructural factors

5.3 Financial factors

5.4 Behavioral factors

5.5 Governmental regulations

5.6 Prioritization of factors based on g-DANP

6 Sensitivity analysis

7 Implications for practice and research

8 Concluding remarks

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