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Economics of State-owned Passenger Transport in Kolkata

Author

Listed:
  • Aparajita Chakrabartty
  • Sudakshina Gupta

Abstract

In developing countries, rapid urbanisation has led to an increase in the demand for transport, aggravating problems of pollution, congestion and accidents. Increasing public transport availability is one way of addressing these problems. In the Indian city of Kolkata, buses cater to a large number of people in the metropolitan area and are run by private operators as well as by the state government. Corporations owned by the state, known as state transport undertakings, operate buses. There is, however, a general complaint that the state-run buses show poor performance in nearly every sphere, including inefficient staff, irregular service, ill-maintained fleet, etc. The objective of this study is to look at the physical, financial and manpower performance of the different state transport corporations to find out whether these corporations operate efficiently. The results indicate that there is underutilisation of fleet, defective employment policy, wrong purchase policy, poor revenue generation, etc. on the part of all the corporations.

Suggested Citation

  • Aparajita Chakrabartty & Sudakshina Gupta, 2015. "Economics of State-owned Passenger Transport in Kolkata," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 7(2), pages 101-115, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:jouinf:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:101-115
    DOI: 10.1177/0974930615609480
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urban transport; public transport; gross kilometres; passengers; vehicles;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R42 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance; Transportation Planning
    • L32 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Public Enterprises; Public-Private Enterprises
    • L92 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Railroads and Other Surface Transportation

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