Paper Title
Bus Transport Management in Madurai

Abstract
Bus Transportation plays a vital role in the development of economy of a nation. India is one of the world's fastest growing economics today where the road transport industry has a lion share in India�s economic development. Due to easy accessibility, flexibility of operations, door to door service, the bus transportation is a boon to the public. The contribution of bus transport to the nation is about 1.2% which is 25% of contribution of all the transportation sectors in India. To make use of the bus transport system efficiently, proper bus management and depot management are necessary. Madurai, a temple city situated at the southern part of Tamil Nadu is well connected with air transport, rail transport and bus transport network. The city is divided into four zones with 100 wards. The rural and urban characteristics make 70% of the population of Madurai to prefer bus transportation. This study deals with the city bus services and the depot management in Madurai district. The district contains 16 depots with five depots in zone I, two depots in zone II, three depots in zone III and six depots in zone IV to spread the bus service throughout the city. To provide a good service, factors affecting the bus transport management were identified and a category analysis is done by comparing with the 7.5 norms provided by the government of Tamil Nadu. A suitable suggestion for the effective depot management and reasons for higher and lower trips in Madurai district is given in this paper. Index Terms�7.5norms, Boon to public, City bus services, Depot.