Travel pressures: Commuters bear the cost of inadequate public transport

Though the rising cost of fuel would have undoubtedly accounted for part of the cost burden, inadequate public-transport infrastructure has also imposed costs on households

One of the striking facts in the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey data is that conveyance expenses accounted for the highest share in average monthly expenditures among non-food items. At national level, the share of average monthly per capita consumption expenditures by a household on commuting in rural areas stood at 7.6 per cent and 8.5 per cent in urban areas. At one level, these statistics point to the inevitable trend of rising mobility and the urban sprawl that enable people to commute longer distances from increasingly “rurban” or suburban areas for work. 

Though the rising cost of fuel would