The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, chaired by Shri Sanjay Kumar Jha, MP, Rajya Sabha, presented its 392nd Report titled "Enabling Inclusive, Digital and Sustainable Bus Transport: Policy, Regulation and Public-Private Partnership for Next-Gen Mobility" on August 11, 2026. The report was adopted by the Committee on August 6, 2026, and contains comprehensive recommendations for transforming India's bus transport ecosystem.
Key Recommendations and Implementation Timelines
The Committee recommends replacing the All India Tourist Permit with an All India Passenger Permit within one year, to be issued by the State of first registration with rights explicitly stated. This system would be enforced through electronic correlation of VAHAN, FASTag and vehicle location data, with monitoring centers commissioned and border check posts eliminated in the six States where they still exist.
A National Bus Terminals Authority should be constituted on the Airports Authority model, separating terminal ownership from bus operation as settled national policy. The authority should circulate a non-discriminatory access framework based on the Kashmere Gate template and frame a National Code for Bus Terminals within one year, while pursuing Gurugram and Katra as development templates.
For digital transformation, the Committee mandates notification of interoperability standards within one year, followed by implementation of a public live-tracking layer aligned with Indian Railways specifications, unified booking across public and private operators, a moderated crowdsourced rating system linked to permit databases, and a cVIGIL-pattern citizen vigilance channel with geo-tagged, time-bound reporting. A GIS-based network atlas publishing punctuality and predictability metrics must be developed from vehicle tracking and toll data.
Safety and Fleet Modernization
Operator-centric safety measures include a district-wise completion plan for Automated Testing Stations within six months, verification of fire, egress and alert equipment at every fitness test, examination of retro-fitment for sleeper and school buses, and implementation of a published operator safety rating considered at permit renewal. The emergency alert system must function within one year, otherwise levies upon operators for it shall cease.
The Fleet Transition Compact proposes fleet-ownership and leasing entities to enable operators to run buses without owning them, facilitated through scrap-and-lease at registered scrapping facilities. This includes review of private scrapping incentives, a time-bound plan for electric buses with targets for each operator, bulk purchasing on standard terms, charging infrastructure matched to operational routes, and an end-of-life framework for electric buses and batteries within one year.
Inclusive Services and Funding
For women's safety, the Committee recommends dedicated peak-hour services operated with women bus drivers and staff within six months, CCTV in new buses, expansion of alert-system programmes beyond the current sixteen States, on-board toilet standardization under the Bus Body Code, monitored sanitation at overnight halts, and funding through mechanisms such as an Inclusive Transport Fund.
The National Tourist Bus Grid proposal calls for integrated tourist circuits interconnecting bus, rail, metro, air and waterways with unified ticketing, a centralized accredited Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul system with digital logbooks for tourist fleet, and intermodal hubs at major destinations on the Katra template with revenue-sharing between public and private participants.
Budgetary and Monitoring Framework
The Committee recommends creating a defined budgetary provision for public transport infrastructure within the Ministry's budget, with reporting within six months on applying a proportion of the order of 25 percent of the road allocation to bus transport. Viability gap funding should be provided for conforming terminals and testing stations.
An annual published ranking of States on bus transport facilitation is proposed, based on verifiable parameters including testing density, terminal access, emergency system functionality, and punctuality metrics from the network atlas, with operator and passenger feedback including disposal records of citizen vigilance reports. The first edition should disclose which States still operate border check posts.
Data Reconciliation and Reporting
The Committee mandates reconciliation of fleet figures within six months, with Telangana's integration into VAHAN pursued and disclosed meanwhile. This includes a consolidated all-category statement of buses, a federated national data architecture where States own their systems, and a periodic authoritative estimate of passengers carried by bus published with the same authority accorded to statistics of other modes.