www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJCBS: Volume: 01, Number: 06, April-2012 Page 1

Division workshop

Depot Buses

7 76 1767

16 126

8000

Graph -1

Showing growth of GSRTC

Position on 1960 Position on 2011

Abstract:- A person travels from one place to other to

accomplish their daily needs of their life. In the past, people

were using many transportation media like a bullock cart, a

cycle rickshaw, through walking etc. as a means of

transportation vehicles. However, public transport still

remains the primary mode of transport for most of the

population. To commence this survey work the researchers

have used convenient sampling method to collect the

samples from Mehsana region. Here, collected 300 samples

were analyzed with the help of statistical software SPSS.16.

For the analysis of the data researchers have used

statistical tools like Graphs, Descriptive statistics, χ2- test, t-

test, and Binomial test were used. Analysis of the data

exposed that the passengers travel by ST bus is not

significantly associated with the demographic variables like

age, income, gender, etc. Moreover, it’s also emphasize that

equal proportion of male and female passengers’ travel by

GSRTC with same purpose and their traveling expenses per

month is less than Rs.500 and they feel that GSRTC should

take a proper care of their buses and should also improve

the behavior of their employees and are not in favor of

privatization of the organization.

Index Terms:- GSRTC, Passengers, Privatization. Opinion

I. INTRODUCTION

A person travels from one place to other to fulfill their

daily needs of their personal life. In the past, people were

using many media like a bullock cart, a cycle rickshaw,

through walking etc. as a means of transportation vehicles.

Now a day in this fast moving life it is not possible and

reliable to travel with the help of these modes. If people use

these sources to travel from one place to other, it’s known to

be wastages of time. Hence, people use the different

transportation modes like their personal vehicles, private

transport or through the government transportation vehicles

which can transport them to the relevant place within short

span of time with entertainment.

In India, all states provide transportation facilities

to their people. There are various government transportation

corporations which are working in their own state. These all

the government passenger transport corporations are like

Gujarat State Road Transportation Corporation (GSRTC),

Rajasthan State Road Transportation Corporation (RSRTC)

and Maharashtra State Road Transportation Corporation etc.

Gujarat State Road Transportation Corporation

(GSRTC) passenger transport Corporation provides bus

services / Public transit both within Gujarat and to the

neighboring states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and

Madhyapradesh. It also runs buses to the Union Territories

of Daman & Diu. GSRTC came into existence on 1st may,

1960 on formation of Gujarat state.

Graph -1 showing the growth of GSRTC vary from

their starting time. It shows that, during the stating time of

GSRTC (i.e. in 1960) it had 7 division workshop, 76 depot

and 1767 buses but now a today’s ( i. e in 2011) it has 16

division workshops, 126 depot and 8000 buses are running

on the road of Gujarat state

As a transportation service provider, with the

growth of an organization it’s really worth fully for them to

understand the passengers’ opinion regarding their services

weather they are satisfied about the different types of the

services or what they want. Their demand and preference

are changed or which types of services they are expecting

from the government transportation corporation.

TRANSPORT IN INDIA

Transport in the Republic of India is an important

part of the nation's economy. Since the economic

liberalization of the 1990s, development of infrastructure

A Study on Passengers’ Opinion and Approach

about the Government Passengers’ Transport

Services: A Special Case of Gujarat State Road

Transportation Corporation (GSRTC) Assist. Prof. Patel Atul & Assist. Prof. Prajapati Rasik,

Smt. S. B. Patel Institute of Business Management, Nootan School Campus, Visnagar, Gujarat (India)

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within the country has progressed at a rapid pace, and today

there is a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water

and air. However, the relatively low GDP of India has meant

that access to these modes of transport has not been

uniform.

In the interim however, public transport still remains the

primary mode of transport for most of the population, and

India's public transport systems are among the most heavily

utilized in the world. India's rail network is the longest and

fourth most heavily used system in the world transporting

over 6 billion passengers and over 350 million tons

of freight annually. Despite ongoing improvements in the

sector, several aspects of the transport sector are still riddled

with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of

investment, corruption and a burgeoning population. The

demand for transport infrastructure and services has been

rising by around 10% a year with the current infrastructure

being unable to meet these growing demands. According to

recent estimates by Goldman Sachs, India will need to

spend US$1.7 Trillion on infrastructure projects over the

next decade to boost economic growth of which US$500

Billion is budgeted to be spent during the Eleventh Five-

Year Plan.

India is also known for a variety of indigenous vehicles

made in villages out of simple motors and vehicle spare-

parts.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Transportation plays a significant role in the

Economic, Cultural, Social and Industrial development of

any nation. Transport sector has not received enough

weightage with due consideration of the researchers in the

past. However, at present universities and various research

institutes like Central Road Research Institute, Central

Institute of Road Transport, Association of State Road

Transport Undertakings, Special division of Planning

Commission and Ministry of Surface Transport etc. have

taken special interest in this sector. Several studies have

paid concentration to the Transport Industry. The existing

literature related to present topic can be viewed from the

different perspectives as Review of Literatures within India

and Review of Literatures abroad India.

Halder D. K., in his book titled “Urban Transport

Problem: An Economic Investigation into Public Utilities in

Calcutta”, studied on Calcutta’s traffic problem with focus

on Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) finds that

for the lower productivity of the CSTC, Low fleet

utilization, Higher absenteeism and Evasion of fare are

responsible factors.

Satyanarayana has found that the cost of service of road

transport depends upon the size of the fleet, the vehicle

condition and the length and road condition. He has

observed that the size of the motor transport unit has been a

fundamental factor influencing the cost of operations of

motor transport industry.

M O Mathew in his book on Rail and Road Transport in

India accentuated that the efficiency of the transport

Industry is determined by Organizational unit sizes. He also

opined that transport, being a public utility industry, is

regulated by Government policies in many ways, of which

some have a direct or indirect impact on the evolution of

size.

Patankar has studied the Road Passenger Transport in

different dimensions since 1950s and analyzed the

operational productivity and efficiency of STUs for the

period 1973-74 to 19979-80. He opined that the future of

road transport sector in India would brighten only with

productivity and passenger Oriented planning are done.

Srivastava has discussed various operating variables like

rates, fares, low productivity, state regulations,

administration, competition, financing, aspects of different

modes of transport. He has analyzed the effect of efficient,

cheap and well coordinated development of transport system

on Indian economy.

Kulkarni has devoted his attention to the bringing about

improvements in the areas of recruitment, selection and

training of the employees in the organization.

Sudarshanam Padam discussed in detail, the history of bus

transport in India, various forms of organizations in State

Transport Undertakings, its management and performance

by way of comparison from 1970-1980 in Andhra Pradesh,

Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka State Road Transport

Corporations. He also identified the problems in

performance.

T.A.S. Vijayaraghavan in his research paper “Strategic

options for state road transport undertakings in India”,

published in International Journal of Public Sector

Management, has highlighted that the criticism of SRTUs

has become more transparent with the recent policy

changes.

Rajeswari Gundam, in her book titled “Public Sector

Performance of State Road Transport Corporation: a Case

Study of Andhra Pradesh”, examines both the financial and

social performance of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport

Corporation both at the state and regional levels.

Particularly she dealt with the pricing policies of the

transport service as being implemented by the corporation.

The National Transport Policy Committee (NTPC)

studied on “Passenger Road Transport in India”, taking the

cross-sectional data of 31 undertakings for 1976 – 1977 and

finds that the unit cost was mainly influenced by two

variables namely fleet utilization and vehicle utilization. The

Committee advocated for a direct exchequer subsidy to

urban transport undertakings in view of the social benefits

that they extend.

Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune,

contributed a paper to a seminar on “How to Make STUs

Financially Viable?”, held by Association of Road

Transport Undertakings, New Delhi, identified the problems

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of interest burden, constraints on increasing fare, leakages of

traffic revenue, and traffic management as major problems

in the way of effective management of State Transport

Undertakings and made some practicable suggestions.

A study ended by the Ministry of Transport, Scottish

Development Department highlighted that the free flow of

traffic at reasonable speed requires planned improvement of

urban road systems. The study also suggested constructing

secondary means of access to enable goods and Service

vehicles to load and unload at the stops.

Sharp C.N. in his work on Transport Economics, examined

the studies undertaken in the field of transport system of

U.K. and studied a number of basic problems like transport

economics, transport investment, transport pricing and

reduction in accident rate.

The literature reviews infer that still not enough

contemplation has been given by the organization or other

researchers to comprehend the passengers’ opinion about

the diverse services provided by the government passenger

transportation corporations. To understand the passengers’

requisite, it is essential to meet passengers and collect their

responses regarding their preference and approach towards

the various schemes and what they expect from the

organization. Thus by considering the above aspects the

researcher has drawn it for their study work.

III. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

In the resent market conditions, many private

passengers’ vehicles are exposed with the better services

and facilities and passengers’ preferences have been

changing from time to time. Hence it becomes very much

difficult for the government passengers transportation to

compete these private players and changing mood of the

passengers.

Thus, the intention of this study is to find out passengers

satisfaction and approach towards the Government

passenger transport service provider GSRTC. Moreover, to

find what passengers do think about their price, facilities,

and the privatization of the organization.

IV. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY:

Limitation of the study work is that the study is undertaken

in Mehsana region of the Gujarat state. Hence we cannot

generalize the finding of the study work with the other

regions.

V. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The present study was undertaken among the

passengers who belong to the Mehsana region. To collect

the primary data, well checked questionnaires were used and

with the help of trained personnel, it was distributed to the

people. In this questionnaire different types of closed- ended

questions were used to capture the relevant information

from the people about the government transportation service

provider GSRTC. For this study, with the help of convenient

sampling method, 325 questionnaires were distributed but

among them only 300 were found to be complete and usable

for the analysis of the data. Analysis of the collected

primary data was done with the help of a statistical software

SPSS.16. In the analysis of the data, different Descriptive

Statistics, Graphs, Binomial test, t- test and ANOVA test

were used.

VI. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:

To collect the information regarding the passenger

opinions and their satisfaction about the government

transport service provider GSRTC, 300 responses were

collected from the Mehsana district. Here, Analysis

revealed that maximum number (i.e.) 87.3% of the

respondents travel by ST bus in their daily life and only

12.7% don’t travel by ST Bus. Those who don’t travel

through ST bus, they normally use ( i. e 84.2%) their

personal vehicle for traveling and remaining travel by

private vehicles.

Graph- 2 shows purpose of trip of using GSRTC.

From this bar chart we can indicate that 39.31%, 27.48%

and 33.21% of the passenger travel by ST bus for their

work, Education and Social respectively. It means that the

purpose of trip of using GSRTC is normally somewhat

equal for all the passengers.

Here, analysis shows that maximum 46.56% of the

respondents monthly expenses for traveling is less than Rs.

500 and Moreover, it’s also emphasizes that for very less

percent of the respondents monthly expenses is none and

above Rs 1500. From this we may say that whose expenses

is none and above Rs.1500 may travel by their personal

vehicle or in the private vehicle. It depicts that normal

traveling expenses of the passenger is less than Rs 500.

Table-1 indicates about the various facilities which

are expected by the passengers from the GSRTC. Here,

38.5% of the respondents opined that they are more

expecting about the proper timing of the buses, 31.3% of the

respondents are expecting good behavior of conductor and

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driver, 17.2% only expects that the display of the time table

should be there and only 13% are conscious about the

cleanliness on the bus depots and buses. Hence, this analysis

revealed that GSRTC should take a proper care of

maintaining the regular and proper timing of the buses by

making necessary adjustment and they should focus on the

behavior of their employees (Driver, conductor, and other

clerical staff of the organization).

Table - 2 indicates about the satisfactory reply from

the enquire window. It shows that equal proportion of the

respondents have opined about the satisfactory reply from

the inquire window. It means that the passengers are not

fully satisfied and dissatisfied about the reply from the

inquire window.

It also shows that 89.1% of the male respondents

and 84.3% of the female respondents travel by ST bus and

only 10.9% and 15.7% of the male and female respondents

don’t travel by ST bus. This analysis shows that in equal

proportion male and female passengers travel by State

transport bus.

Table-3 Cross – tabulation Purpose of Trip of using GSRTC * Age

Age (Years) Total <

20 20-30

36 - 50

> 50

Purpose of Trip of using GSRTC

Work 3 43 33 24 103 Education 40 30 1 1 72 Social 8 34 20 25 87

Total 51 107 54 50 262

Above table -3 indicates that maximum number ( i.

e 103) of the respondents’ purpose of trip is for their work

and most of them are belonging into the age group 20-30

yrs. Analysis also indicates that the respondents whose age

is less than 20 years their purpose of trip is for education

they rarely use it for their personal work or social problems.

Over all analysis indicates that the main purpose of trip for

the respondents of less than 20 years of age (i.e. students) is

for education and those who are belonging in the upper age

group use ST bus for their work and social reasons.

Graph – 3 focuses on the comparisons of the views

of male and female counterparts regarding the major factors

which they considered while traveling by ST bus. It shows

that both male and female respondents are almost equally

considered about the fare. But, there is major difference in

the opinion regarding the other factors like Quality, Time

and Security. Here, a male passenger gives more importance

to the Quality and Security factors while Female passenger

gives more importance to the timing factors. It means that

the female are more conscious about the timing of the buses.

They don’t like to wait long time to pick up bus. Hence to

attract maximum number of female passengers, GSRTC

should become time punctual regarding the timing of the

buses

Opinion of male and female passengers regarding

the fare charged by GSRTC indicates that the fare charged

by the GSRTC is Economical as compared to the private

passengers’ transportation agency. 31.76% and 37.36% of

the male and female respondents reveal that the fare charged

by GSRTC is not very high. This shows that the female

passengers are still not satisfied about the fare charged by

the GSRTC.

Table- 1

Facilities expected from GSRTC

Frequency %

Proper timing of Buses 101 38.5

Good behavior of conductor and driver 82 31.3

Display of Time table 45 17.2

Cleanliness 34 13.0

Total 262 100.0

Table - 2

Satisfactory reply from the inquire window

Frequency %

No 128 48.9

Yes 134 51.1

Total 262 100.0

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From the graph -4, we can say that 25.95%,

21.37%, 20.61% of the respondents are expecting News

papers, FM radio, and Magazine respectively as an

additional facility which should be provided. It revealed

that with the help of these facilities, a passenger can pass

their time very easily and simultaneously they may remain

in contact with the current issues of the market. Now days,

maximum number of the service man and women pass their

time in journey from their home to service places and cannot

read or allot their very busy schedule for the further reading

about the book and magazine. Hence, GSRTC should

provide these additional facilities to their passengers.

Analysis revealed that among all the respondents

70.6% of the respondents are satisfied about the quality of

the ST buses and only 29.4% are not satisfied with the

quality of the buses. Moreover, if we see about the

agreement of the respondents towards the privatization of

the ST buses, 65.6% are not in favor of privatization of the

ST buses.

Analysis also emphasizes that 24.4% are not

satisfied with the quality of the buses and still they are not in

favor of the privatization of the ST bus and 75.6% satisfied

respondents are not in favor of privatization of the GSRTC.

Hence, we may depict that the satisfied and non satisfied

respondents are not agreed about the privatization of

GSRTC.

Table-4 Awareness Regarding Promotional Schemes

Frequency %

No 129 49.2

Yes 133 50.8

Total 262 100.0

Above respondents analysis regarding the

awareness about the promotional schemes indicates that

almost equal proportion of the respondents have knowledge

and are familiar about the promotional schemes which are

implemented by the GSRTC. It means that there is no

significant difference in the opinion regarding the awareness

about the various promotional schemes which are in force

by the GSRTC. By converting this non awareness ratio into

awareness ratio, GSRTC may attract maximum number of

working and non working people to utilize these various

promotional related schemes and it may also creates loyalty

and attraction of the passengers towards the government

transport service provider GSRTC

VII. TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS:

H01: More than 80% of the respondents travel by ST

bus in their routine life.

Here in non parametric test, binomial test is

suitable. So, researchers have used Binomial test to test the

above assumption. Test results of the binomial test are given

in the below table – 5

Table-5 Binomial Test

Category N Obs. Prop.

Test

Prop.

Asy.

Sig.

Travel

by

ST Bus

Yes 262 .87 .85 .146

No 38 .13

300 1.00

Here, Binomial test asymp. Sig. (1-tailed) is found

to be 0.146 which is highly significant. Hence we can

conclude that more than 85% of the respondents travel by

ST bus in their routine life.

H01: Fare charged by GSRTC is economical as compared

to the private passengers’ vehicles.

Table- 6 One-Sample Test Test Value = 2

(Economical)

Fare

charged

by GSRTC

t d.f Sig. Mean

Diff.

95% C. I.

Difference

Lower Upper

5.120 260 .000 .207 0.13 0.29

Table-6 shows one sample t- test two tailed

significant value is found to be 0.000. It means that there is

significant difference in the test value and standardize value.

Hence H01 will be rejected. But, mean value is greater than

the test value 2 (Economical and low) that is 2.21. It

revealed that the fare charged by GSRTC is not only

economical but it is also low.

Table- 7 Chi-Square Tests

Demographic variables

v/s travel by ST bus

Test

value

Sig. Symmetric

Measure

Gender 1.44 0.230 0.069

Age 6.802 0.078 0.151

Marital Status 9.88 0.02 0.181

Employment Status 8.52 0.074 0.169

Educational

Qualification

4.49 0.213 0.122

Monthly Incomes 6.36 0.174 0.146

Area 6.61 0.037 0.148

Table -7 indicates chi-square test value and

symmetric measure phi. It shows that all the demographic

variables and passengers travel by ST bus are significantly

not associated. Moreover, the symmetric measure Phi which

is also very small which support the test. Hence, an

organization can formulate their various promotional

schemes without considering the demographic variables.

Analysis also emphasize that 24.4% are not

satisfied with the quality of the buses and still they are not in

favor of the privatization of the ST bus and 75.6% satisfied

respondents are not in favor of privatization of the GSRTC

because they have fear that the privatization of the

organization can create exploitation of the passengers.

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VIII. CONCLUSION:

In the passengers’ transportation service sector,

many private players come with the additional facilities

according to the requirements of passengers. In the modern

era, it becomes inevitable for the government and private

transportation service provider to take care of passengers.

It indicates that the demographic variables are not

significantly associated with the passengers’ mode of

traveling. Above findings show that equal proportion of

male and female passengers’ travel by GSRTC with same

purpose and their traveling expenses per month is less than Rs.500. Here, passengers replied that GSRTC should take a

proper care of maintaining the regular and proper timing of

the buses by making crucial modification and they should

also focus on the behavior of their employees who are

directly get in touch with passengers.

Maximum number of the service men and women

pass their time in journey from their home to service place

and cannot allot time for the further reading about the book

and magazine from their very busy schedule. Hence,

GSRTC can take care of their passengers by providing

certain additional facilities like magazines and newspapers

to their passengers.

By converting this non awareness ratio into

awareness ratio, GSRTC may attract maximum number of

working and non working people to utilize these various

promotional related schemes and it may also create loyalty

and attraction of the passengers towards the government

transport service provider GSRTC. It also depict that the

satisfied and non satisfied respondents are not agree about

the privatization of GSRTC.

IX. REFERENCES:

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Fare Policy from STU’s, Journal of Transport

Management, Vol. 12,.

[2] Mathew M.O., (1964) “Rail and Road Transport in

India – A Study in Optimum Size and

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