Improving public transport to meet our growing travel demand needs sustainably is a strategy that excites experts, policy makers and the public alike. Buses offer a cheaper and more agile public transport service for rapidly urbanizing developing countries where transport networks need to be flexible to meet changing mobility patterns effectively. Despite their obvious benefits, however, bus systems in India have not scaled up to meet the expectations of the growing population, primarily owing to the poor financial position of bus agencies which are struggling with growing staff and fuel costs even as the revenues are stagnant.

Government’s financial support to public transport is discretionary in nature and is mostly limited to capital support for fleet procurement, infrastructure development and to reimburse for the concessional travel obligations. Instead, bus agencies need consistent funding support to meet their cost and service obligations. In this context, the World Bank is supporting the institutionalization of a ‘Public Transport Service Contract (PTSC)’ mechanism in Chennai that formalizes a five-year commitment by the Government of Tamil Nadu to provide Viability Gap Funding for Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) Chennai to improve its bus services. The model offers several learnings about ensuring financial sustainability and improving service quality of bus services across India. The talk will cover a baseline assessment of bus services in India, key gaps and how PTSC can address some of the challenges.

Ravi is a consultant with the World Bank working on public transport and electric mobility initiatives. Over the past few years, he has been part of various initiatives advancing clean public transport systems in India including: technical inputs to improve bankability of Government of India’s recent procurement of ~12,000 electric buses; development of city level e-bus transition roadmaps for Chennai and Bangalore; bus service planning and scheduling improvement projects; and preparing city level action plans for electrification of paratransit services.
Ravi has completed his Masters and Ph.D. from IIT Delhi on public transport planning and has a Bachelors in Civil Engineering. He is based out of Bangalore and has more than fifteen years of experience working in the sector.