The initiative will transform the daily commute for thousands of workers, students, and rural residents who travel from peripheral talukas into Nagpur city. 

 

To revamp public transit and bridge the connectivity gap between rural and urban sectors, Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) Transport Department has submitted a comprehensive expansion proposal to the State Government. The plan seeks official authorisation to extend the operations of ‘Aapli Bus’ to the jurisdiction of the Nagpur Metropolitan Region Development Authority (NMRDA). The NMRDA jurisdiction spans an expansive 3,567.37 sq km. It covers Nagpur City, Nagpur Gramin, Hingna, Parseoni, Mauda, and Kamptee talukas, alongside parts of Saoner, Kalmeshwar, Umred, and Kuhi talukas. This area extends roughly 25 to 40 km well beyond the existing NMC boundaries.

 

The proposal comes at a critical juncture when the civic body’s fleet expansion has outpaced its current geographic operational limits. Commenting on the logistical challenges and the lack of a clear implementation timeline, a senior official from the Transport Department stated, “We have a robust fleet of more than 700 vehicles right now, but a significant number of them sit idle due to the lack of routes. These inefficiencies exist purely because we are restricted to a smaller operational circle.

 

As our vehicular numbers have grown, expanding our transit routes into the broader metropolitan region is the only logical step forward.” “However, because the proposal is currently awaiting Government clearance, we do not have a fixed tenure or completion date for when this expansion will be fully realised,” the official stated. If greenlit by the Government, the initiative will drastically transform the daily commute for thousands of workers, students, and rural residents who travel from peripheral talukas into Nagpur city. By opening routes across the NMRDA belt, the NMC aims to fully optimise its standard fleet capacity, minimise operational losses, and deliver a reliable, interconnected regional public transport network.