Performance Evaluation of Public Bus Transport Operations in Karnataka by using Non-parametric and Multivariate Analysis

Abstract

Indian cities rely predominantly on buses for public transport. The issues of performance measurement and efficiency analyses for the bus company have been gaining significance due to severe operating conditions and financial constraints in which these bus companies provide the service. Performance is defined as the levels of success of the service with respect to different parameters such as quality of service, cost effectiveness and safety. Performance is measured in terms of operational efficiency and financial efficiency. Operational Efficiency of an organization is the ability to utilize its available resources to the maximum extent. Financial Efficiency is a measure of the organization’s ability to translate its financial resources into revenue. Public bus transportation plays a pivotal role in India in bringing about greater mobility both within and between urban and rural areas. Through increased mobility, road transport also contributes immensely to social and economic development of different regions of the country. Public transport is provided by surface road transport using buses by the State Road Transport Undertakings (SRTUs) and by private operators. In this thesis, scientific analysis of the performance of SRTUs is carried out at different levels considering physical and financial parameters through multivariate techniques, non-parametric techniques and qualitative techniques. A comprehensive study on all the SRTUs of Karnataka at depot, division level are done and determined which quantitative method is suited for depot level and division level studies. From quantitative and qualitative studies of SRTUs strategies are developed and recommendations are made to improve the performance of SRTUs. Further, in addition to Bangalore metropolitan transport corporation (BMTC) performance analyses, the routes are analyzed to reduce the dead kilometer. Major contributions from this work: 1. Both inter and intra city operations of the public transport corporation in the state of Karnataka have been exhaustively analysed using operational and financial parameters. 2. Large amount of data over a long period has been collated from State road transport units and a standard format has been developed for collecting both operational and financial parameters for SRTU’s. 3. A generic framework and plan for performance evaluation of SRTU’s has been developed using ratio and benchmarking analysis, and, non-parametric and multivariate techniques like DEA (constant return to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS)), DEA-principal component analysis (PCA), DEA- bootstrapping. These analyses have been carried out at different levels, like transport corporations level (KSRTC NEKRTC, NWKRTC, BMTC), division level (33 divisions), and Depot level (193 depots). 4. Non parametric and multivariate Models have been developed and validated using DEAP and GAMS software before embarking on the above detailed analyses. 5. Analytical hierarchy approach (AHP), which is multi criteria structured technique, has been adopted to evaluate and analyze performance of the SRTU’s, divisions and depots based on qualitative and quantitative data. 6. User and operator perception studies of different SRTU’s of Karnataka have been done to evaluate the performance of these corporations from qualitative techniques. 7. From these comprehensive non parametric techniques, the efficiency of the SRTU’s have been evaluated and found that KSRTC has been the best operating unit among the SRTU’s considered for the study. The same has been observed from the AHP as well as perception surveys carried out as part of this thesis. 8. Operation and financial performance including profitability studies of Mysore urban transportation (Mysore city transport division) has been carried out before and after implementation of intelligent transport system (ITS). 9. The dead kilometer minimization model was formulated, which is a mixed integer programming problem, to get the optimal solution considering the capacity of the depot and time period of operation for the chosen network. An optimization technique has been developed for solving the dead kilometer problem in the operations of BMTC buses for the Volvo division (division operates 794 schedules). The alternative depot locations have been identified to reduce the dead kilometer, leading to large amount of savings for the corporation. 10. From the detailed analyses using non parametric techniques, multivariate and multi-criteria techniques along with perception surveys, strategies and recommendations have been arrived at to improve performance of the public transport corporations. This thesis consists of nine chapters and they are as below; Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction of public bus transport systems in India, their problems and need for performance evaluation of SRTUs. The impacts study of Mysore ITS, dead kilometer minimization problem for BMTC along with evaluating the performance of SRTUs by quantitative and qualitative data. This chapter provides the objective of the work and scope of the work. The main objectives of this research are 1. To develop a generic framework and plan for evaluation by identifying the performance indicators and data sources for evaluation.