An Empirical Investigation into an Economic Analysis of State Road Transport Undertakings in India

State Road Transport Undertakings have been the backbone of the transportation network in India since their inception. These corporations were set up to provide a sustainable and cheap mode of transport for citizens of India, along with providing connectivity to rural parts of the nation. Over the years, the financial and physical performance of most State Road Transport Undertakings has dropped significantly. The social goal, political influence and poor management have been some of the major factors contributing to the losses made by most of the State Road Transport Undertakings. We have conducted this study by considering eight State Road Transport Undertakings, which are loss and profit-making, to understand the factors responsible for improving the physical factors of these State Road Transport Undertakings. To undertake this objective, we used correlation analysis and feature importance analysis using random forest regressor. We have proposed some policy-based measures for each State Road Transport Undertaking analysed based on the results and analysis. JEL Codes: C12, I38, L32, L91, N35, O53, R41, R42