Saumya

UT4051

Urban transport in India demands substantial public investment, much of which is shouldered by municipal corporations. However, there is limited evaluation of these expenditures, particularly for infrastructure supporting private vehicles. Existing guidelines, such as those from MoHUA, focus on individual projects but overlook cumulative, system-wide costs. This often results in disproportionate public spending on private transport. This study proposes a system-level cost assessment framework that incorporates both financial and economic costs, including infrastructure, operations, accidents, and emissions. Applied to Ahmedabad, the framework estimates mode-wise daily transport costs in absolute and per passenger-kilometre terms, highlighting the cost-efficiency of public transport over private modes.