Abstract:

The centralized transport system of Kolkata Metropolitan City exhibits the dependency on mass transport services. In the multimodal mass transport system of Kolkata, both road based modes viz. buses, both state owned and private, mini buses, trams; and rails viz. suburban, circular and metro act as major modes of mass transport services. But Kolkata has a unique distinction of satisfying 13.60 million passengers (57.88 percent of the total passengers) on an average week day through road based mass transport services in comparison to the 4.80 million passengers (20.42 percent of the total passengers) through railway in 2011. Such variation reveals the primacy of road based mass transport services at the city core. The extent of availability of and accessibility to such road based mass transport reflects the level of actual and potential mobility of people. Although the road based mass transport system in most of the developing cities is dominated by the public sector companies with certain degree of privatization, but such condition get reversed in case of Kolkata.