Falling number of public-transport buses in Kerala worrisome

Availability of buses is 0.50 per 1,000 people while national average is 1.33.

The declining number of public-transport buses in Kerala over the past two decades has resulted in availability of buses nosediving to approximately 0.50 per 1,000 people, as compared to the national average of 1.33. The steep fall in the number of buses in Kerala is in stark contrast to even Bangladesh which had 0.97 buses per 1,000 people, while developing countries such as Thailand had 8.42 buses, Malaysia 5.90 buses and Mexico 2.87 buses, as per data released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. “The steep decline in the number of private stage-carrier buses in Kerala is evident from the fact that their number fell from approximately 35,000 in 2000 to 12,000. The fleet depletion of 20,000 buses over two decades is worrisome, especially in a small State like Kerala where public-transport buses provided cost-effective and low-carbon footprint travel,” said D. Dhanuraj, chairman of city-based think tank Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), which has done innumerable studies in the sector, based on which recommendations were forwarded to the government.