Over the last two decades, India has seen a steady decline in public transport ridership, especially that of buses. Growing incomes and the need for speed and comfort have led people to shift to personal motor vehicles (PMVs); while the ones who cannot afford this shift continue to deal with poor bus services. Our streets are a cacophonous sea of vehicles—with LOTS of cars and two-wheelers, dotted here and there with just a few buses, all trying to outrun each other but clearly, there is no space. The result? Everyone’s stuck in endless traffic—that’s choking our streets, and our lungs too.
Mumbai’s notorious traffic made it to TomTom’s list of top 10 Congested cities in the world in 2022. Bangalore, Delhi and Pune were listed in the Top 25. Image source: ANI
What can cities do to tackle this burgeoning issue, that’s costing us time, money, and lives? What attractive alternatives can cities present, so people can ditch their cars and two-wheelers and shift to other low-carbon modes? And most importantly, how can public transport, especially buses, become that alternative for PMV users, and the default choice for everyone else?
Enter Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge. An initiative by the Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), the Challenge aims to make public transport safe, reliable, and affordable for everyone—including women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities—so they can comfortably access work, education, and other opportunities.
Kickstarted in April’21 and spanning across two years, the Challenge focuses on digital innovation in public transport and brings together cities, citizens, and startups to develop solutions in key areas, such as fare products and payment solutions; service planning and monitoring; and passenger Information and interaction. More than 130 Indian cities signed up to participate in the Challenge!
Why collaborate with Startups
The Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge aims to make the most of the talent within India’s startup ecosystem—the third-largest in the world. This year, Honourable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi even dedicated 16th January as ‘National Startup Day’, acknowledging the immense potential that startup innovations have. The public transport sector, too, stands to greatly benefit from these innovations.
The Challenge will connect cities to startups with the ability to develop robust contextual solutions for public transport, and conduct large-scale pilots in at least 10 cities. Startups and cities will also receive guidance from experts and feedback from citizens. The best solutions shall also be implemented by multiple cities across India, through an easy procurement process.
Stages of the Challenge
The Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge has three Stages—
Stage 1 is for problem identification—where cities, with the support of citizens and NGOs, identify key recurring problems that citizens and public transport operators face.
Stage 2 is for solution generation—where startups develop prototypes of solutions to improve public transport with inputs from cities, experts, & NGOs.
Stage 3 is for pilot testing—where cities engage startups for large-scale pilots and refine the solutions based on citizen feedback.
Stage 1
Set up of public transport task-forces in 99+ cities
Stage 1 witnessed the formation of 99 Transport4All Task Force—that brings together all stakeholders and departments responsible for public transport in the city into one big collective. These include the Municipal Corporation, Smart City Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), City Bus Undertaking, Metro and Suburban Rail, Regional transport office, Traffic Police, Road Owning Agencies, IPT unions, NGOs, and Academic Institutes working in the field of sustainable mobility. The Task Force ensures a fast, collaborative, and integrated decision-making process.
Stakeholders and city department representatives convene at the Sagar Transport4All Task Force kick-off meeting
Over 2.4 lakh survey responses to identify problem statements
Stage 1 saw cities join forces with more than 200 NGOs for an intense data collection exercise—the largest of its kind in India — to understand from citizens and public transport operators the problems that they experience. ITDP India guided cities with survey questionnaires, trained NGOs and officials on how to conduct these surveys, and also provided easy-to-use Excel templates to analyze the data.
45 cities surveyed more than 2 lakh citizens—of varying genders, age groups, abilities, and socio-economic status—and recorded the issues they faced. Cities and NGOs surveyed 17,000 bus drivers and conductors to know their operational difficulties. Through surveys and in-person interviews, they also noted the concerns of the 25,000 informal public transport drivers, a group that is often ignored in India’s transport planning. Cities used insights from these surveys and consultations to frame five key problem statements in consultation with the Task Force.
Volunteers of the NGO ‘Mahila Housing SEWA Trust’ surveying families in Surat’s industrial and EWS areas
NGO volunteers conduct a consultation with auto drivers in Guntur
Volunteers surveying Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus drivers at Davangere
What comes next
In Stage 2 of the Challenge, cities will engage with startups to create solutions for the shortlisted problem statements. Startups will develop and beta-test prototypes with inputs from cities and NGOs. A jury consisting of a panel of experts will identify 1-2 winners for each problem statement, based on how well their solutions cater to the present and future needs citizens.
Winning startups will receive an award of ₹10 lakhs per solution from MoHUA and will be eligible to pilot their solutions in interested cities in Stage 3. Cities will procure the services of startups for a large-scale pilot and refine the solutions based on citizens’ and experts’ feedback.
Through the Transport4All Digital Innovation Challenge, cities have a unique opportunity to reimagine and reform their public transport system, where fares would no longer be a barrier to travel and everyone can afford it, and public transport would no longer be the last, but the first choice of all.
After all, like Enrique Penalosa, Former Mayor of Bogota, rightly points out, “A developed country is not a place where the poor use cars, it’s where the rich use public transportation.”
Written by: Aishwarya Soni
Edited by: Kashmira Dubash
With inputs from Vaishali Singh
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