Dr. John Hoffmire: Ravi, you’ve been actively involved in public transport and electric mobility reforms in India for over a decade now and you started working across South Asia in recent years. What inspired you to focus on this sector, particularly in a country as complex as India?
Ravi Gadepalli: Hello John. My journey into urban mobility started during my time at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, where I researched the integration of bus and paratransit systems. Professor Geetam Tiwari was my mentor at IIT Delhi and her pioneering research on sustainable and people-centric mobility solutions inspired me to work in this area. India’s transport challenges have always fascinated me—how do you meet the massive and diverse demand while also ensuring sustainability? I chose to focus more on bus and paratransit systems given their space and cost efficiency while providing mass mobility.
Over the years, I learnt the multifaceted role of transport beyond just moving people to ensure inclusivity, economic growth, and environmental responsibility. Working on low-carbon mobility plans and then moving to public transport, electric mobility service design, and financing felt like the natural progression to tackle these issues. My focus in the coming years will be to develop decision support tools for digitisation, optimisation and electrification of public transport systems.
John: You’ve played a key role in the implementation of electric buses (e-buses) in cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and others through local and national-level Government programs. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while working with bus agencies in transitioning these cities to electric mobility?
Ravi: India’s large-scale shift to electric buses and my involvement in it has been a rewarding but complex journey. I started working with the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) in 2017 where we provided technical assistance to the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) for their first set of e-buses. While we initially focused on technical challenges like the range of buses, charging systems and so on, we very quickly realised that one of the main challenges was the financial model.
Electric buses require a high upfront investment – which BMTC did not have the bandwidth for. At the same time, private operators were hesitant due to the lack of bankability observed in previous contracts. We fine-tuned the concession agreement to ensure bankability for both the city and the operators to achieve the lowest e-bus contract cost at that time (2020).
I later got to work with the World Bank on the Government of India’s national-level aggregated procurement of 5,545 e-buses in a single tender. I supported the program with technical inputs to the tender and building consensus with cities on standardising procurement specifications. This tender lowered the price for the 12-year life of e-bus contracts to be 24-26% lower than diesel buses. This was the inflection point for Indian bus agencies to prioritise e-buses and led to several large-scale procurements since then.
I was also involved in the initial design of the payment security mechanism to de-risk future investments in e-buses and attract private players. The Government improved it further and has recently approved it for implementation.
The World Bank has also been instrumental in institutional reforms that ensure sustained bus service improvement and electrification in Chennai, where I was leading some of the key components. Our work there provides a template that can be scaled up across other cities and regions.
Lastly, coordination between multiple stakeholders—Government agencies, private operators, and manufacturers—was crucial and a challenge in itself.
John: You’ve led public transport projects in India, but you’re also working internationally. How do India’s urban mobility lessons translate to other countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, or Rwanda?
Ravi: Each country has its unique challenges, but the underlying issues—rapid urbanisation, congestion, and pollution—are quite similar across South Asia and even in African countries like Rwanda. What India offers is a blueprint for scaling up with limited Government expenditure, especially in terms of standardising technology, policy, and financial models. For instance, the success of India’s electric bus procurement and the governance reforms in cities like Bengaluru and Chennai have inspired similar approaches in Nepal and Bangladesh. While the scale may differ, the core principles of sustainable, data-driven, and financially viable public transport are universally applicable.
John: India has some of the world’s most ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. How do you see the role of public transport and electric mobility in achieving these targets?
Ravi: Public transport uptake and electrification is central to India’s climate change mitigation strategy. The transport sector contributes about 12% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, so the shift towards electric mobility, especially in public transport, is critical. The adoption of electric buses and cleaner fuels directly addresses this. However, it’s not just about technology but also about reducing the overall vehicle kilometres travelled. The Government’s push for walking, cycling, and mass transit will play a significant role in reducing emissions. The role of integrated urban planning that makes public transport the backbone of city mobility cannot be overstated.
Achieving this will require us to go beyond the recent success with e-bus technology transition and focus more on making our public transport more demand-oriented. At the same time, the investments in public transport need to add an intelligence layer. A more data-driven approach to optimise e-buses and chargers to meet service delivery targets would be required. That’s why I’m even looking to focus more on developing context specific tools for our public transport authorities and operators in the coming years.
John: You were a member of the recent 2024 Chevening Research, Science and Innovation Leadership Fellow (CRISP). Tell me about your experience and what kind of impact it has had on you so far.
Ravi: The CRISP experience was transformational for me and came at the right point in my career. The program itself was carefully curated for us to have deep engagement with learned faculty such as yourself, Andrew Gibbons, Mark McCartney and Mark Evans who helped orient my thinking process towards being an entrepreneur while also staying focused on addressing developmental challenges. The CRISP cohort included brilliant colleagues from diverse sectors who are all trying to solve a key developmental or societal challenge. They have inspired me to raise my ambition to lead more impactful work. Not just that, the constant engagement with them through the fellowship provided many practical learnings which I’m trying to incorporate into my leadership journey. I hope to foster the strong friendships made with them well into the future. The U.K. also has cutting edge work happening on public transport improvement and electrification through effective Government and private sector led innovation. I got the opportunity to interact and learn from several leaders in the space during the three months of our fellowship. Overall, my time there allowed me to reassess my priorities for the coming years and I look forward to advancing the many ideas I came back with.
John: Thanks, Ravi, for sharing your insights with us. Your work is truly making an important impact, and we look forward to seeing how it evolves.
Ravi: Thank you, it’s been my pleasure discussing these exciting developments with you, John. Really appreciate your guidance during the fellowship and the initiative to capture the stories of Chevening fellows through such interviews.
Ravi Gadepalli is a Consultant to The World Bank, a Principal Consultant for Transit Intelligence LLP, and a Chevening CRISP Fellow, University of Oxford, 2024
John Hoffmire is a Research Associate at the Oxford Centre for Mutual and Co-owned Business.
