Union Budget 2018 | India Moving to Self-driven Vehicles, Discarding Public Transport: Economic Survey

New Delhi: The Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on Monday, presented data which concluded that Indians are now using more two-wheelers and passenger cars as compared to public transport.

“Two-wheelers and passenger cars and jeeps have increased on Indian roads while the share of public transport like buses and also goods vehicles contracted over the same period,” noted the Economic Survey, prepared by Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian.

The Survey stated that road transport is the dominant mode of transport in India, both in terms of traffic share and in terms of contribution to the national economy.

Highlighting the importance of road transport in India, the Survey said, “Apart from facilitating the movement of goods and passengers, road transport plays a key role in promoting equitable socio-economic development across regions of the country. Easy accessibility, flexibility of operation, door-to-door service and reliability have earned road transport a greater significance in both passenger and freight traffic vis-à-vis other modes of transport.”

However, there is one major glitch in the road sector that the Economic Survey pointed out.

“The surfaced road length in India was 61 percent of the total road length which was much lower as compared to United Kingdom (100 percent), Korea (83 percent) Russia (71 percent) and China (68 percent),” said the report.

According to the report, India has one of the largest road networks of over 56.17 lakh km comprising of National Highways, Expressways, state highways, major district roads, other district roads and village roads.

In 2016, total road length increased to 5,617,812 km while the total number of motor vehicles grew by four times to 229 million.

“The Government’s focus on constructing National Highways in Indian States has a significant impact on trade and per capita income. A positive relationship exists between density of National Highways and the per capita income in Indian States. Higher the density of National Highways, higher the Per capita GSDP,” the report added.