NEW DELHI: India’s public transport system is not keeping pace with the auto boom, making commuters shun buses and trains and hop on to two-wheelers and cars. This has resulted in public transport’s share of passenger trips falling to an all-time low, and the situation is getting worse with every passing year.Compared with a share of 60-80% of passenger trips across major Indian cities in 1994, the share of public transport is expected to reduce to 25-35% in 2018.The culprit seems to be the city bus infrastructure as the number of buses has not increased during the last four years, while there has been a significant rise in the two- and four-wheeler populations, adding to the congestion on urban roads.The last 10-15 years have seen rapid Metro construction work in cities such as Delhi, with Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jaipur and Lucknow also joining the map, although at a slower pace.A study by global consulting firm AT Kearney showed that the two- and four-wheeler population went up 8-10% annually between 2014 and 2017, even as the stock of registered buses recovered in 2017 after a dip.“There is a flat/negative growth in bus fleet, modal mix is skewed towards cars and two-wheelers,” AT Kearney said in its report. Some of the urban experts TOI talked to said the sharp fall in the share of passenger trips using public transport in urban areas was not just surprising, but alarming.“A car or a two-wheeler offers commuters the flexibility to move from their flat to their office. There are neither incentives to use public transport nor disincentives like hefty parking charges or a high registration fee for private vehicles,” a government officer said.As a result, existing bus fleets are largely underutilised due to restrictive permit conditions and other regulations. Nearly 1.4 lakh of the 19 lakh registered buses are run by state road transport undertakings, and the remaining 90% are run by private players or are attached to educational institutions and other entities.Urban transport planner N Ranganathan, former head of transport planning at Delhi’s School of Planning and Architecture, said the government should not expect more than 20% of car owners to shift to public transport even if there was adequate availability and comfort.