ITDP (Institute for Transportation & Development Policy) – Blog

One Challenge, Five Startups: Better Public Transport for India

India’s Transport4All (T4A) Challenge, launched in April 2021 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Smart Cities Mission, mobilized over 240,000 citizens, 130 cities and 28 startups to tackle chronic bus‑service unreliability. The competition split the problem into seven focused challenges, yielding ten pilot projects that embed digital tools such as real‑time tracking and demand‑responsive routing. Early pilots are already cutting wait times and nudging commuters away from rickshaws toward public buses. The effort demonstrates how a hackathon‑style model can accelerate urban mobility innovation at scale.