COVID-19 and the public transport conundrum in India

Abstract

As a response to COVID-19, India locked down for a continuous 68 days starting on Mar 25, 2020, during which inter-city/state and intra-city public transport was totally suspended for the first fifty days Subsequently, the trains started on the 51st day, and informally buses began carrying inter-state and intra-state migrants fleeing cities not just in fear of COVID-19, but of unemployment and thus income loss, and subsequently made homeless by their employers or their landlords during the stringently enforced lockdown On the 55th day of the lockdown the plying of intra-city bus-based public transport was permitted, and on the 69th day intermediate public transport (IPT), namely auto-rickshaws, ubiquitously found on Indian city and suburban roads Public city bus services also began working in all cities The call on starting suburban trains and metro lines within cities would be taken in due course Economic activities opened up from June 1, 2020, but without public transport, daily commuting has become difficult, causing a potential income loss for the segment of the population dependent on public transport