PPP in city bus operations in India gained momentum in the last two decades, when several cities that lacked technical and financial resources started implementing city bus services. PPPs were adopted to harness private sector’s ability towards efficient management of service delivery with adoption of technology and ease of access to finances, thereby creating system efficiencies and reducing the financial burden on public sector to start/scale a bus service. Even though several cities have used PPPs to start and/or scale-up bus operations, there have been gaps in achieving desired service levels as well as objectives for which PPPs were adopted. Private sector in bus operations is finding it difficult to achieve efficiency, procure finance, delay in payments from public agencies and implement contract conditions leading to deterioration in service quality and scaling up of bus operations through PPP. PPP holds the potential to bridge the efficiency and investment gaps needed to ramp up bus services
