Rural Mobility in India: Roads Built, Services Missing

D Dhanuraj, Nikhil Ali and Chaithra A Navada at February 11, 2026

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Rural India is home to nearly two-thirds of the country’s population, yet access to affordable and reliable public transport remains severely constrained. Over the past decade, large-scale investments under schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana have significantly expanded rural road connectivity, but this infrastructure growth has not been matched by a corresponding expansion in transport services. As a result, rural households continue to rely heavily on walking, cycling, and costly private modes, leading to rising conveyance expenditure and persistent mobility inequities.

This paper examines the structural gap between rural road development and rural transport service provision in India. Using national datasets, government reports, and scheme-level analysis, it assesses bus availability, service frequency, and investment patterns across rural and urban contexts. The study further evaluates central and state-level rural mobility initiatives, including Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY) and state-specific schemes, highlighting their achievements and limitations. The paper argues that India’s road-centric rural mobility strategy has overlooked service sustainability and demand responsiveness and calls for a shift toward flexible, small-vehicle, shared mobility models supported by targeted regulatory and financial reforms.

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Dr D Dhanuraj is the Founder-Chairman, Nikhil Ali is the Senior Research Associate (Urban), and Chaithra A Navada is a Research Associate (Urban), at Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR).

Views expressed by the authors are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research.

D Dhanuraj

Chairman at Centre for Public Policy Research | + posts

Dr Dhanuraj is the Chairman of CPPR. His core areas of expertise are in international relations, urbanisation, urban transport & infrastructure, education, health, livelihood, law, and election analysis. He can be contacted by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @dhanuraj.

Nikhil Ali

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Nikhil Ali is an Associate, Research at the Centre for Public Policy Research. He completed his graduation in Civil Engineering from Sree Narayana College of Engineering and is a seasoned Civil Engineer with working experience at Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd. With a passion for urban planning, he acquired his master's degree in Urban Planning from Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai. His expertise lies in Urban Mobility, land use planning/analysis, and water-sensitive planning.

Chaithra A Navada

Research Associate, Urban at CPPR | + posts

Chaithra A Navada is an Associate, Research (Urban) at the Centre for Public Policy Research. She holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a specialization in transportation from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MA in Development Studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM).

Her experience spans multimodal transport planning, road safety planning, traffic impact assessments, and policy research aimed at fostering sustainable and equitable urban mobility systems. As a transportation planner, she has contributed to road safety plans for cities and counties in California, Florida, and Texas. She supports projects in the urban and transportation verticals at CPPR, and currently works on a project to improve shared mobility in rural India.

D Dhanuraj, Nikhil Ali and Chaithra A Navada

D Dhanuraj, Nikhil Ali and Chaithra A Navada, D Dhanuraj, Nikhil Ali and Chaithra A Navada and D Dhanuraj, Nikhil Ali and Chaithra A Navada

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