Demand-driven official statistics can transform infrastructure planning. Evaluate with reference to the NSS 80th Round surveys.

Demand-driven statistics are data collected because a user ministry sets out what it needs for planning. Routine general-purpose surveys are not built this way. The NSS 80th Round (July 2025–June 2026) shows the model at work. The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) was designed around the Ministry of Railways' requirements [2]. The companion DTES feeds the Ministry of Tourism's Tourism Satellite Account [3]. The promise is real, but it depends on how the data are used.

How it can transform planning

• Spatial demand matrix: NHTS records the purpose, mode, distance, timing and cost of trips across rail, road and air. This shows where new capacity should go [2].
• Evidence over assumption: two-wheelers are the main mode for 42.6% of commuting workers (52.3% urban). Mass transit carries only 5.0% of urban work commutes [1]. This exposes a gap between metro investment and how people actually travel.
• Equity lens: 61.9% of male workers make daily work trips above 1 km, against 41.9% of female workers [1]. This makes safe transport a labour-market issue.
• Richer baseline: Census 2011 Table B-28 covered only non-farm workers [4]. NHTS adds students, non-work trips and spending, across about 4.9 lakh households [1].

Limitations

• Client–user mismatch: the survey was built for the Railways, yet most findings concern trips within cities. Those are planned by MoHUA and urban local bodies.
• Thin city sample: 10,377 urban blocks across the whole country [1] cannot produce city-level origin–destination matrices. City plans under MoHUA's Scheme for Urban Transport Planning still need local studies [5].
• Blind spots: trips under 1 km are excluded [1], so walking by the poor and by women is undercounted.
• Factsheet only: the release has no split by income or city. So we cannot judge whether the ₹785 monthly commute [1] is affordable.

Verdict and way forward

• The potential is high, but it will only be realised if NSO releases unit-level data, repeats the survey regularly and counts short trips.
• NHTS can serve as the baseline for the National TOD Policy. That policy aims to move people away from private vehicles by building densely within 500–800 m of transit stations [6].

The NSS 80th Round shows that statistics can steer investment, not just describe it, when line ministries set the questions. Detailed data access, regular repetition and use by city planners will decide whether this happens. Done well, it would advance SDG 11.2: safe, affordable and sustainable transport for all.