RETRACTED ARTICLE: Measuring Routes Efficiency of Kolkata Bus Transport: A Modified DEA Approach

Abstract

This paper propose modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) model based on semi-oriented radial measure (SORM) for operational and financial performance assessment of different bus routes in Kolkata, an urban city in India. Existing literature indicates that the route based efficiency analysis is ignored in the transport related research. This method has been applied on 18 sroutes where buses are making either loss or marginal profit. Banker, Charnes and Cooper's (BCC) DEA model cannot deal with negative values, due to the inherent non-negativity assumptions. Proposed model handles negative values more efficiently compared to the conventional model. Also, it recognizes route specific cost advantage and service efficiency in a better way by giving an improved efficiency score to the routes with low cost and huge passenger load. In addition, analysis reveals that less road congestion, careful introduction of new buses on overlapping routes, and employee salary structure revision can improve the performance.