Ghanshyam Vishwakarma is in a hurry. His feet are pedalling his cycle hard. Sixty-five-year-old Vishwakarma wants to reach the Boria gate of the Bhilai Steel Plant as soon as possible as he is afraid that he might lose his job if he is late. He has been earning his livelihood by working as a labourer in the Bhilai Steel Plant since the age of 16-17. He lives in Bhilai-3, which is also known as Old Bhilai, about 15 kilometres away from the plant. His only means of transportation to the plant is a bicycle, which takes him from his home to the plant in about 45 minutes. It takes him about one-and-a-half hours to go back and forth. His three sons also work as labourers and bicycle is their means of transportation too.
Dilip Kumar Raghuvanshi, who is cycling with Ghanshyam, also comes by cycle from old Bhilai. He said his colony is mainly inhabited by the working class and cycle is their most reliable means of transportation.
Down to Earth (DTE) found 40 workers at the plant’s Boria gate, most of whom ride bicycles. Suresh Bhargava, who came to Boria gate from Jamul, about 15 kilometres away, said most of the workers do roll handling and loading-unloading work at the plant through contractors. Most of the workers who come by bicycle, cover a distance of 10-15 kilometres.
Prashant Tiwari, public relations officer of Bhilai Steel Plant, told DTE that about 25,000 people work in the plant spread over about 30,000 hectares. Due to lack of public transport, these employees travel only by private vehicles.
Many employees working in the plant live in nearby sectors and due to lack of any means of transport, they cover the distance to the plant on foot. Jageshwar and Rukmani Sahu, who are doing apprenticeship in the plant, are also among them. Jageshwar said he lives in Sector-1 which is about 2.5 km away from the plant. He has to cover a distance of about 5 km on foot to go and come back. DTE saw many people, including women, riding bicycles in the plant area, indicating that bicycles are widely used for commuting purposes here.
The local and working population of Bhilai is making limited use of local trains. The city has a total of three railway stations known as Bhilai-3, Bhilai Power House and Bhilai Nagar.
Hemant Kumar, who serves in the Chhattisgarh Police and travels daily from Raipur to Bhilai-3 by train, said that the timetable of local trains gets disrupted due to their stoppage in order to let freight trains pass. This creates problems for working people in reaching their workplaces on time.
Dhirendra Gautam, who was waiting for a local train to Durg at the same railway station, said he will be boarding a local train after 6-8 months. He has to board a train from Raipur to Dalli Rajhara, which reaches Bhilai at 9:45 am. “It is now expected to arrive at 10:30. They say that due to this delay in local trains, people are losing faith in them,” said Gautam.
Ashish Ranjan, station master of Bhilai-3, believes that the number of passengers in local trains has reduced and people have started giving preference to private buses because they provide better service. He said that students and working class people travel more in local trains because travelling in private buses is expensive for them.
On an average, 2,000 passengers travel daily in the six local trains passing through Bhilai railway station. The station master said till 2008, the number of people traveling by bus was limited. Most people’s first choice was the train. But now the situation has changed.
The station master believes that trains get cancelled many times which causes inconvenience to passengers. He added that this is also a major reason for the decreasing number of passengers. Now that people earn more, they no longer want to wait for trains. Subsequently, their dependence on private vehicles is increasing.
Bhilai, which is included in the Durg district of Chhattisgarh, is situated between the city of Durg and the capital Raipur. So, it has better connectivity by train and road. The distance of Durg from Bhilai is about 8 km and from Raipur is about 33 km. Bhilai’s main traffic is between these two cities.
There is no public transport other than local trains to go to these two cities from Bhilai. The population of Bhilai is completely dependent on private buses to go here. Dhirendra Gautam said that till three years ago, there was city bus connectivity between Bhilai to Raipur and Durg, which is now completely stalled.
Gautam, who lives in Bhilai’s Charoda, used to reach Durg by these buses till three years ago. But now he does not have this option. He said these buses were available every 15 minutes. Since the buses have been stopped, he and many others like him have become dependent on bikes.
Isha Sinha, who lives in Bhilai and works in a hotel in Raipur, said the 12-hour job makes her so tired that she does not have the courage to travel by bus. She added that the private buses going from Raipur to Durg via Bhilai are often so crowded that there is no place to sit. Often, she has to travel standing for the entire journey. Considering the difficulties of travelling, she goes to Bhilai only once a week.
Hina (name changed), who works in a call centre in Bhilai, said that girls do not feel safe in auto or bus. Hence, working women are using scooters more.
Hina lives in Kohka in Bhilai and travels 8-9 kilometres on a scooty. A large number of girls work in her office, most of whom travel on scooty. She said that her office has a staff of about 1,000-1,200 people, of which about 40 per cent come in private vehicles.
Durg district is second in the state in terms of maximum vehicle registration after Raipur. A total of 886,684 vehicles have been registered here so far. In 2025, about 21,000 vehicles have been registered so far. In the year 2024, 21 per cent more vehicles were registered as compared to 2023. In 2023, 9.55 per cent more vehicles were registered in Durg’s Regional Transport Office and in 2022, 12.38 per cent more vehicles were registered.
At present, more than 100,000 cars and about 676,000 two-wheelers are registered here. Apart from this, 5,924 three-wheelers, 1,727 buses, 3,520 passenger e-rickshaws and 4,276 omni buses (private use) are other major modes of transport.
Durg-Bhilai is Chhattisgarh’s main industrial city. According to Brief Industrial Profile of Durg District prepared by the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, there are 18,878 registered industrial units here. Of these, 32 units are in the medium and large category. Apart from the Government of India steel plant in Bhilai, there are 12 big units in the surrounding areas.
In the study titled Airborne particulate matter levels in randomly selected areas in Bhilai, published in 2023 in the journal Ecology Environment and Conservation, Geetanjali Mishra, Mukesh Kumar, Shikha Srivastava, Divya Minj and Neetu Srivastava found that pollution had increased significantly due to increasing industrialisation and urbanisation in Bhilai.
The study examines the levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 in different areas of Bhilai in December 2022. The researchers found that the primary causes of pollution include commercial and industrial activities, vehicular traffic, construction, open burning of coal, wood, dry leaves, paper, plastic, etc.
The study was conducted on different days in December. According to the researchers, the levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 were more than 80-100 micrograms per cubic metre. PM levels were above the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) limits at all selected locations in industrial and non-industrial areas.
The PM 2.5 level in the selected areas ranged from 43 to 441 micrograms per cubic metre, PM 10 level ranged from 49 to 511 micrograms per cubic metre. According to the study, the air quality at 28 places did not meet the standards, while 5 places were highly polluted. The highly polluted places included Baba Deep Singh Nagar, Jaihind Chowk Supela, Ghadi Chowk Supela, Jawahar Nagar and Ramnagar Road. The study said that prolonged exposure to such air could be harmful for the health of sensitive people, the elderly and children.
This article is part of our series on how India moves, which looks at the relationship between air quality and human mobility in cities and towns.