Men Spend ₹835, Women ₹533 on Monthly Office Travel

New Delhi: A new government survey has revealed interesting details about how Indians travel to work and educational institutions, including the average monthly commuting expenses of employees, travel time and the modes of transport they rely on. According to the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) conducted for the first time by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), employees across India spend an average of ₹785 per month on commuting to and from their workplaces. The average monthly expenditure is higher in urban areas at ₹1,044, compared with ₹612 in rural areas.

Male employees spend an average of ₹835 per month on workplace travel, while female employees spend around ₹533. The survey, conducted between July 2025 and June 2026, defines a trip as travel covering at least one kilometre. Around 57.6% of employees travel more than one kilometre to reach their workplaces, while more than half of those aged 15 years and above travel to either fixed or non-fixed workplaces during a day. The proportion stands at 54.5% in rural areas and 64.1% in urban areas. Two-wheelers emerged as the most commonly used mode of transport among employees, accounting for 37.1% of workplace travel in rural areas and 52.3% in urban areas. Public transport such as metro, local trains, monorails and trams accounts for around 5% of workplace trips nationally in urban areas, with the share reaching 20.7% in Maharashtra, 16.5% in West Bengal and 14.4% in Delhi.

The survey also found that 83.4% of employees reach their workplaces within 30 minutes, including 86.1% in rural areas and 79.3% in urban areas, while around 13.7% take between 30 and 60 minutes. On average, employees take 25 minutes to travel from home to their regular workplace 23 minutes in rural areas and 27 minutes in urban areas. Travel patterns among students were also recorded, with 66.4% travelling more than one kilometre to educational institutions. Students in urban areas spend an average of ₹617 per month on commuting, compared with ₹361 in rural areas. Among school students, around 37% walk to school, while 29.5% travel by bus and 15.8% use bicycles. About 10.5% use three-wheelers, 6.7% use two-wheelers, while the share of three-wheeler use rises to 14.4% among urban school students and two-wheeler use to 11.5%. The survey also found that the average travel time for students is around 23 minutes, highlighting the varied commuting patterns across rural and urban India.

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