At a time, when the rise in privately owned vehicles is leading to congestion on roads and is triggering an increase in pollution levels, public transport needs to be upgraded so that people are tempted to use them for their good services.

Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has done just that and has won an award from the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (MOHUPA) for operating the best city bus service in the country.

At the 10th Urban India Mobility Conference and Exhibition held in Hyderabad on Monday, minister of state (independent charge), housing and urban affairs, Government of India, Hardeep Singh Puri presented the award to Municipal commissioner M Thennarasan.

The SMC runs 275 efficient city buses on 28 different routes, covering 85 percent of the urban area since launching the city bus service in November 2016.

According to a report by the ministry, the model shift of passengers from autorickshaw to city bus in Surat city is about 86.91 percent. The number of passengers increased to 65,000 from 3,000 and the SMC's revenue, too, shot up from Rs 46,000 to Rs 6,00,000 daily.

Around 6.18 percent of two-wheel passengers, 0.67 percent of car users and nearly 5 percent of other passengers have switched over to city buses. The SMC has plans to further increase the number of buses by adding 300 more to its fleet to cover 100 percent of the urban area.