Roadmap to Upscale Urban Bus Transport Services in India
Cities Forum supports the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in preparing a roadmap to upscale urban bus transport services across India, in service of the nation's long-term development vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
Year: 2024–2025 | Client: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) | Country: India
Cities Forum supports the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in preparing a roadmap to upscale urban bus transport services across India, in service of the nation's long-term development vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. Buses remain the backbone of public transport in Indian cities, yet provision falls well short of what a modern, sustainable urban future demands; the roadmap sets out how the sector can be transformed to deliver more, cleaner and better bus services at the scale the country needs.
Our approach
The assignment is anchored in a rigorous assessment of urban bus demand and a clear-eyed diagnosis of the gaps against Service Level Benchmark (SLB) standards. By quantifying how far current provision sits below the benchmarks that define adequate service, Cities Forum establishes the scale of the challenge in concrete, measurable terms, the number of buses required, the coverage and frequency gaps, and the disparities between cities. This evidence base turns a general aspiration for "better buses" into a specific, quantified target that policy and investment can be organised around.
What we delivered
From this foundation the roadmap addresses the two questions that determine whether the gap can be closed: how to procure and operate the fleet, and how to pay for it. Cities Forum assesses e-bus demand as a central element of a cleaner sector, estimates the financing requirements of scaling provision to SLB-aligned levels, and develops policy recommendations spanning institutional arrangements, procurement and operating models, and the financial mechanisms needed to make expansion viable and sustainable. The emphasis throughout is on a transition that is not only larger but greener, embedding electric buses at the heart of the growth story.
Impact
The roadmap gives CSE and Indian decision-makers a structured, evidence-based pathway to expand and modernise urban bus transport in line with national development and climate goals. For Cities Forum, the project reinforces its expertise in bus-sector planning, service benchmarking and transport financing, and its contribution to one of the most consequential agendas in Indian urban mobility, ensuring that the buses on which millions depend become more plentiful, more reliable and progressively zero-emission.
