What is the significance of the National Household Travel Survey for evidence-based infrastructure policy in India?

India has spent heavily on roads, metros and bus fleets without national data on who travels, how and why. The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) fills this gap. It is India's first such survey, run by the NSO (MoSPI) as part of the NSS 80th round from July 2025 [1]. It moves transport planning from assumption to evidence.

What the NHTS captures

• It records who travels, and when, why, where and how, across all demographic groups [1].
• MoSPI put the draft schedule out for stakeholder comments before launch, which improved its design [2].

Significance for infrastructure policy

• Demand-based investment: it maps the spatial demand for rail, road and air travel. It also measures how much travel demand changes with price for each mode (price elasticity) [1].
• Sectoral planning: rail origin-destination data helps Indian Railways plan coach production by class [1].
• Gender-responsive design: women are twice as likely as men to walk or use public transport to work (~67% vs ~33%), and over half of rural working women walk [3]. This makes footpaths, street lighting and off-peak buses core infrastructure, as the World Bank's 2022 toolkit recommends [5].
• Regional targeting: many women walk to work in MP, UP and Bihar, which points to scarce buses. In Kerala (Keralam), a strong bus network keeps the rural-urban gap small [3]. The data allows need-based allocation across States.
• Jobs and growth: long commutes shrink the area in which women can look for work [4]. Travel data therefore links infrastructure to female labour force participation.
• Green transition: heavy reliance on walking and public transport [3] supports investment in low-carbon modes.

Limitations to address

• It is a single one-year round [1], so there is no trend yet. A repeat survey is needed to judge schemes such as free bus rides.
• It counts only people who already commute [3]. Women who left jobs because of poor transport do not appear in the data.
• Its value depends on MoSPI releasing State- and district-level gender tables.

For the first time, the NHTS gives India a demand-side basis for transport spending. Making it a regular survey, publishing detailed data and linking it to gender budgeting and State transport plans would turn this evidence into safe, inclusive mobility. That would advance SDG 11.2 (accessible transport) and SDG 5 (gender equality).