Exploring the provisions for bus-based public transport in the Development Plan

Maharashtra is one of the most urbanized states in India, with over 5 crores of its population living in urban areas. Public transport is poor and even non-existent in most of the cities, which have seen an explosive growth in vehicles and with it, chronic congestion and pollution. For an industrialized state like Maharashtra, there are only 11 buses per lakh population. Most of the Municipal Corporations (population > 3 lakhs) do not have a city bus service at all. Even the better performing cities are no better! While Mumbai has about 30 buses per lakh population Pune has about 27, both short of the 50 buses per lakh population benchmark set by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Excluding these two cities, there are only 4 buses per lakh population in other cities. Through this webinar, we aim to explore what is actually needed to make bus-friendly cities a reality in Maharashtra especially from the lens of a tool like Development Plan.