India's intercity bus industry grows 25 pc to 140 mn passengers in Apr-Sep: Report

Mumbai, Nov 19 (PTI) India's intercity bus industry logged a 25 per cent growth year-on-year at 140 million passengers in the April-September period this year compared to 112 million passengers in the same period last year, driven by higher inventory and entry of new operators, according to an industry report.

The growth was accompanied by a ticketing value of Rs 13,200 crore across more than 6,000 active private bus operators, redBus' latest BusTrack Report said.

The report, which covers data from the entire Indian intercity bus industry, connected to redBus' platform, shows that sleeper and hybrid buses accounted for 85 per cent of all journeys, while AC services comprised 71 per cent of seats sold during the six-month period.

Also, over 670,000 unique routes connected more than 11,000 towns during the period with nearly 65 per cent of all routes stretched beyond 250 kilometres, indicating a shift towards longer, cross-regional journeys, it said.

"This 25 per cent y-o-y growth has come on the back of existing bus operators adding inventory, new operators starting businesses on traditional routes and digitisation of inventory in long tail and new routes. We also see a clear shift in the preference towards AC buses," redBus CEO Prakash Sangam said.

"There has been a big jump in the number of private bus operators coming online, which has led to a significant expansion in the network base in both towns connected as well as unique bus routes," he said.

Pan-India, as much as 76 per cent of seats on intercity buses were occupied during the period with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana recording the highest seat fill rate at 84 per cent, while Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh saw lower utilisation at 63 per cent, as per the report.

In terms of regional distribution, the report stated that Maharashtra and Goa led with 16 per cent of total seat bookings, followed by Tamil Nadu at 15 per cent, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at 12 per cent, and Karnataka at 11 per cent.

At the same time, Maharashtra recorded an average seat price of Rs 1,066, higher than the pan-India average, with 67 per cent of travel being intrastate, along with a bus occupancy rate of 79 per cent, it said.

The report also noted that non-metro regions drove growth, with 61 per cent of total bookings originating from smaller cities and towns and added that the country's top six metros accounted for 33 per cent of bookings, while other state capitals contributed 6 per cent. PTI IAS TRB