Effect of Development of Rural Roads and Feeder Service on Trip Characteristics of Households: A Case Study

Abstract

Over the last decade, India has made significant progress regarding the development of rural roads through a program called as ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana’. With improved road infrastructure, small feeder vehicles like tempos and trekkers have started operating in many rural areas. The present paper reports an investigation on the change in trip characteristics of households due to the development of rural road and/or introduction of feeder service (informal service-by private operators). Three geographical areas served by PMGSY roads and/or feeder service in West Midnapore district of West Bengal are considered in the case study. The work indicates that development of rural roads has resulted in an increase in trip rates for all the categories (i.e. work, education and others) made by different categories of household (i.e. farmer, labour, service, business and others). Trip rates are also found to increase for all categories of the household after starting of the feeder service. The feeder service is found to attract predominantly bicycle users from all categories of the household.