Will pod taxis fix Mumbai’s last-mile links? india news

built under a ₹A Rs 1,016-crore public-private partnership model, the system will deploy driverless electric pods seating five to eight passengers. Running on dedicated guidelines with 38 stops, the pods will connect Bandra and Kurla railway stations with commercial hubs like Jio World Centre, Bharat Diamond Bourse, SEBI, NSE.

Operating on demand at speeds of up to 40 kmph, the pods promise zero-emission, point-to-point rides. Construction is likely to begin soon, with operations targeted around 2027 under the Design-Finance-Build-Operate-Transfer (DFBOT) framework.

“The system will boost last mile connectivity, help reduce congestion and provide a new, efficient mode of transportation,” says an official of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the nodal agency for the project.

Similarly, Delhi’s November 2025 Urban Mobility Vision proposes pod taxis in high-density areas like Rohini-Rithala and Narela.

However, experts have warned that pod taxis, though innovative for specific corridors, will not solve India’s long-term last-mile crisis, which requires deep, systemic reforms.

the weakest link in a vast system

Over the past two decades, India’s megacities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and others – have invested billions in metro rail networks. Delhi Metro now extends for about 400 kilometers and continues to expand. Mumbai and Kolkata are also building many corridors.

Yet, the last leg of the journey – the distance from the station to home, office or any other destination – remains disorganized and unreliable.

Commuters exiting metro stations or transit hubs often face swarms of unregulated e-rickshaws and shared autos, and congested junctions and encroached footpaths ensure that walking is hardly an option. Not surprisingly, short trips of 1-2 kilometers can take 20 minutes or more during peak-hour traffic. For many, this uncertainty outweighs all the benefits of fast, air-conditioned metro travel.

Experts say this gap is primarily responsible for increasing congestion on roads despite the expansion of metro networks in cities, as when the last mile is inconvenient, commuters often prefer or turn to private vehicles.

An April 2025 study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), titled “Neighbourhood Public Transit Services: A Situational Analysis of Bus-Based Public Transport Supply in Delhi”, highlights this imbalance. Six out of ten daily journeys in Delhi are less than 4 kilometers – yet long-distance buses dominate the network. More surprisingly, more than 31% of Delhi’s neighborhoods lack a bus stop within 500 metres, meaning that almost one in three to four neighborhoods does not have convenient access to public bus services.

Similarly, a survey of Delhi Metro users by the World Resources Institute (WRI) found that the first and last mile segments take up only 18% of the total travel distance, but about 40% of the time and 48% of the cost, underscoring how inefficient access modes distort overall travel.

Broken solutions and failed solutions

Indian cities have tried many methods to fix the last mile problem, but have failed.

Over the years, feeder buses were introduced by agencies such as Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) to connect stations with surrounding areas. Many of these services suffered from low frequency, low ridership and poor coordination with metro timings.

Informal methods became dominant. While e-rickshaws and shared autos provide flexibility and frequency, their proliferation has only created chaotic stations, safety risks and traffic jams. Most operate outside a unified fare system without any route rationalization, digital tracking or any service standards.

Non-motorized solutions are still a long way off as footpaths continue to be encroached upon, broken or in disrepair; Cycle tracks, where they exist, are mostly fragmented. Public bike-sharing schemes in cities like Delhi and Bengaluru are struggling with theft, maintenance challenges and low uptake in dangerous traffic environments. The scale of app-based shuttles is limited.

“The real problem is that the last mile is nobody’s problem,” says Amit Bhatt, India managing director of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). “Metros are planned in isolation, road agencies build the roads, and transport undertakings run the buses. To bridge this gap, we need empowered and financially independent integrated transport authorities – similar to Transport for London – that prioritize integrated planning.”

While many Indian cities have created Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities (UMTAs), Bhatt argues that most remain coordination bodies without real executive powers.

The lack of unified authority means that individual transit agencies continue to operate within their own silos.

Delhi Metro no longer directly operates feeder buses, but has added other options. According to Anuj Dayal, DMRC Chief Executive Director (Corporate Communications), around 1,500 e-autos operate from more than 40 metro stations, carrying around 53,000 passengers daily. The network has also tied up with aggregators like Rapido and Bharat Taxi.

DMRC says it follows a data-driven approach to identify last mile gaps.

“We assess travel demand through mapping mobility patterns, field inputs and accessibility of residential and commercial clusters,” says Dayal. “In areas like Dwarka and Rohini, we realized that peripheral housing societies lacked seamless connectivity, and launched e-auto services accordingly.”

But, the number of passengers served by its feeder channels is a very negligible part of the 6.5-7 million daily trips taken on the metro network.

walk the last mile

In fact, the contrast with cities abroad could not be starker. For example, in London, the plan prioritizes active travel (walking and cycling) over public transport, followed by low-density modes, with single-occupancy vehicles at the bottom. “Our bus network is designed so that 96% of London’s population lives within 400 meters – a 10-minute walk – of a bus stop. We maintain high-quality, barrier-free footpaths and safe crossings to encourage walking,” says Shashi Verma, strategy director at Transport for London (TfL).

Experts say the Delhi Metro’s average distance between two stations – about 1.3 km – reflects its design as a ‘trunk’ system for long-distance travel. In contrast, the densest corridors of the Manhattan subway system have an average distance of barely 400–500 meters. This tight grid supports short walking distances, removing the need for last-mile mode.

In 2006, Delhi Metro had announced a mission to ensure a station within 500 meters of every residential colony in the city by 2020. But, today, the metro is not even close to that goal.

“This is considered an ideal. However, in the case of Delhi NCR, we must keep in mind that this urban agglomeration is already the largest worldwide and is growing with the rapid expansion of new residential and commercial areas,” says Dayal. “The Delhi Metro network is gaining momentum and will be over 500 kilometers long in the coming years. Additionally, if we add the RRTS (regional rapid transit system) and other metros being built in Gurugram and Noida, the total coverage will be huge – covering almost every neighborhood in the region.”

The ICCT study proposed a neighborhood-level approach to expanding bus services, particularly through the deployment of small electric buses designed to serve short, intrazonal routes. It advised limiting the new neighborhood routes to a service radius of 5 kilometers from the depot to reduce dead kilometers and ensure the feasibility of electric buses with opportunity charging requirements.

“First and last mile connectivity, especially in low-density or inaccessible areas, remains a major hurdle in expanding bus services in cities,” says Bhatt. “That’s why cities around the world are introducing neighborhood buses – like Japan’s community buses, America’s neighborhood buses, and Germany’s Quarterbuses”.

Mobility expert Shreya Gadepalli emphasizes that walking is the most effective way to cover the last mile, provided it is “safe, short and ideally under five minutes”. However, he argues that urban design is fundamentally flawed. She says, “Everything is planned with cars in mind. The people who design our cities don’t use public transportation; they travel by car and plan for cars.” This results in infrastructure such as skywalks and foot-over bridges, which she sees as tools to “remove pedestrians” out of the way of motorists rather than actually serving them.

She also points to the worrying decline of the bus fleet in cities like Mumbai. “There was a time when Mumbai had such a large fleet of double-decker buses that ensured last-mile connectivity to suburban stations. But, the fleet has declined from a peak of around 6,000 to less than 3,000,” she says, highlighting the growing gap in mobility in the city.

New neighborhood of the capital-first bus model

Meanwhile, Delhi is adopting a “neighbourhood-first” bus model to bridge the last mile gap. Under its DEVI (Delhi Electric Vehicle Interconnector) initiative, the government is deploying small electric buses, designed to ply narrow lanes and under-served colonies where standard buses cannot reach.

Last year, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta had flagged off 400 nine-metre electric buses, with more buses being added after this. These air-conditioned mini buses with approximately 23 seats and additional standing capacity operate from depots like Ghazipur, Vinod Nagar East and Nangloi. Their routes are designed to connect these colonies with nearby metro stations and major Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) corridors.

Gadepalli argues that such investment in buses is far more useful than capital-intensive grand projects like monorail and pod taxis. “With the money that is being invested in the pod taxi network, Mumbai could have expanded its bus fleet by 50%,” she says.

However, former IAS officer and transport expert OP Aggarwal, who was also the lead author of the National Urban Transport Policy (2006), has a more measured view of the BKC project.

He says the proposed pod taxi connection between Bandra and Kurla suburban stations via the BKC business district is “not a bad idea” to improve last mile accessibility within a dense commercial centre.

“But, there is a glaring institutional gap in transport planning in our cities that needs to be addressed urgently,” says Agarwal. “Integrated transport authorities have already been set up in many cities. Now is the time for them to take responsibility and start working effectively. They cannot wait for some powers.”

He argues that these new agencies should start with achievable reforms – parking policy, fare integration, seamless transfers at select stations – rather than citing limited authority as an excuse.

He says, “Lack of power cannot be a permanent excuse to avoid doing some meaningful work on the basics. They should at least make a start. Once they make visible improvements on the ground, the necessary powers will come.”

If that institutional change happens, the last mile may eventually become someone’s responsibility.