New Delhi : A parliamentary panel has proposed sweeping reforms to India’s bus transport sector, including a single All India Passenger Permit, abolition of border check posts, common access to terminals and a National Bus Digital Grid.
Border stops, and ₹1-1.5 lakh challans under an ambiguous tourist-permit regime, private buses denied access to State-controlled terminals, passengers unable to seamlessly track or book services across operators, and little dedicated infrastructure for a 4.4-lakh-bus market dominated by private ownership are among the problems a parliamentary panel wants India to fix through an overhaul of bus transport. Operators told the committee that uncertainty over permits can extend even to insurance claims after accidents, while industry representatives said 92% of buses lack supporting infrastructure.
The Sanjay Kumar Jha-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture has consequently recommended replacing the All India Tourist Permit with a single All India Passenger Permit within one year, ending the operation of bus border check posts still operating in six states, and moving enforcement to VAHAN, FASTag and vehicle-location data. The committee wants border check posts still operating in six states to be phased out, against a wider backdrop of regulatory frictions involving Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab, ranging from permit and taxation disputes to fitness certification and compliance costs. It has also proposed an Airports Authority-style National Bus Terminals Authority that gives public and private operators common access, and a National Bus Digital Grid to track and book buses, like trains.
The proposed reset addresses a market in which three out of four of the officially counted 4.4 lakh buses are privately owned, but infrastructure and regulation remain heavily fragmented across States. The panel has sought a dedicated budgetary identity for bus infrastructure after industry representatives proposed that a proportion “of the order of 25%” of road allocation be directed towards public transport. The Road Transport Ministry administers an annual budget of around ₹3 lakh crore, but the committee said there is no substantial provision specifically for bus infrastructure as distinct from carriageway construction.
“While vehicle standards, highway development and electric mobility have each received sustained policy attention, the bus as a service, and the passenger who depends upon it, have not been examined with corresponding rigour,” Jha said in the report’s preface.
The committee presented its report to Parliament on August 11 after hearing from Road Transport Ministry officials, the Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India, FlixBus, GreenCell Mobility, and inter-city operators.
Airports Authority model
Another problem the committee has identified is access to infrastructure. In many States, State transport undertakings both operate buses and control terminals, leaving them in a position to restrict access to competing private operators.
The committee described terminals as the sector’s “point of strangulation, and its greatest idle asset”.
Operators such as Flixbus and representatives of private bus operators like BOCCI drew an aviation analogy: airlines do not build their own airports but pay to use common infrastructure.
“Denying private buses terminal access can instead leave passengers boarding from roadsides without the lighting, sanitation, information and accessibility available inside.” the operators have guided in the report.
The committee argued that opening terminals to all operators is not only a competition issue but also a commercially viable model. Evidence presented to the panel cited Delhi’s Kashmere Gate Interstate Bus Terminal as an example. Private buses pay about ₹500 per entry through FASTag, with one operator alone contributing roughly ₹5 lakh a day. According to submissions before the committee, smaller terminals opened to private operators became cash-flow positive within months. The panel consequently described a national authority for bus terminals as “the most bankable single reform available to the sector”.
Track a bus like a train
The digital problem is another paradox: VAHAN holds permit and fitness information, FASTag records toll movements and commercial buses carry tracking devices, yet passengers cannot see those services as one national network.
The proposed National Bus Digital Grid would combine public and private bus tracking, real-time seat availability and booking, passenger ratings and geo-tagged complaints.
“The task is not another portal; it is the grid beneath every portal,” the committee said.
