As organised intercity mobility gains momentum across India, zingbus is expanding beyond its core bus-ticketing business to build a comprehensive travel ecosystem. With strong growth driven by network expansion, premium services and new mobility offerings, the company is targeting ₹500 crore in revenue this fiscal while strengthening its presence across key travel corridors. In this interview with Bus Coach India, Prasant Kumar, Co-Founder, & CEO Zingbus, discusses the company’s growth strategy, emerging opportunities in Tier II and III markets, and its vision of transforming zingbus into a trusted, full-service travel brand.
Q. Zingbus is targeting Rs 350 crore in revenue this fiscal. Nearly six months into the financial year, how much progress have you made towards achieving this target? What have been the biggest growth drivers so far?
We closed the last fiscal year with over ₹300 crore in revenue, and for the current fiscal, we are targeting ₹500 crore. We are tracking this growth through a combination of deeper presence in existing corridors and expansion into new geographies across India. The biggest growth driver has been network expansion. As more travellers shift towards organised intercity mobility, we are seeing strong demand in both established and emerging routes. Alongside this, new verticals such as Chyll and rentals are helping us address adjacent travel needs beyond scheduled intercity buses. Our focus is to build zingbus as a travel brand, not just a bus-ticketing platform. Whether it is premium intercity travel, curated travel experiences, rentals, or future mobility formats, the idea is to serve more use cases while maintaining reliability, safety, and customer trust at scale.
Q: Your network has expanded rapidly across North and South India. Which markets offer the biggest untapped opportunity?
India’s biggest untapped opportunity lies in the growing connectivity between Tier II and Tier III cities and major economic centres. Rising incomes, better highways, and increasing digital adoption are creating demand for organised intercity travel in markets that have traditionally been underserved. We also see significant potential in premium overnight corridors, where travellers are increasingly looking for an alternative that combines the convenience of road travel with higher standards of comfort, safety, and reliability. This opportunity is evident across North, West, and South India, with some greenshoot routes emerging in East India. Today, zingbus Maxx operates on key corridors such as Delhi-Manali, Delhi-Shimla, Delhi-Lucknow, Chennai-Coimbatore, Hyderabad-Chennai, Pune-Bangalore, Pune-Nagpur, and Bangalore-Nagercoil. These routes have demonstrated that demand for premium bus travel is not confined to a particular region, but is driven by customer expectations. Building on this momentum, we plan to add around 10 new zingbus Maxx routes, including Gurugram-Lucknow and Hyderabad-Tirupati, among others. Our expansion will continue to be demand-led, focusing on corridors where premium travel can deliver a differentiated customer experience while maintaining operational consistency.
Q: Recent bus fire incidents have raised serious concerns about passenger safety. Has zingbus reviewed or strengthened its safety protocols following these incidents?
Yes, we continuously review our safety protocols, especially in light of recent incidents across the industry. These incidents are deeply unfortunate and serve as a reminder that passenger safety can never be taken for granted. At zingbus, safety has always been a core operating principle rather than a reactive measure. Our focus remains on prevention through world-class safety practices, adoption of modern fleet, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, disciplined operations, and continuous monitoring. Our buses operate with speed governors set at 80 kmph, are equipped with AI-enabled driver monitoring systems to detect fatigue and unsafe driving behaviour, and are tracked in real time through our operations command centre. We also follow preventive maintenance schedules, conduct regular driver training and audits, and have clearly defined emergency response protocols. In addition, we evaluate our fleet every year and retire vehicles that do not meet our internal safety standards. This helps ensure that our safety promise is backed not only by technology and training, but also by the quality and readiness of the fleet itself. Safety has to be embedded into every aspect of operations, from vehicle readiness and driver behaviour to route planning and real-time oversight. As we continue to grow, maintaining and continually raising these standards remains one of our highest priorities.
Q: AI is transforming mobility as well in the bus industry too. How is zingbus using artificial intelligence to improve operations? Does AI help predict passenger demand and optimise pricing or route planning?
Yes, AI helps us predict passenger demand and supports pricing, route planning, and fleet deployment decisions. For us, its real value lies in reducing guesswork in a high-variance business.
Intercity bus demand changes by season, festival periods, weekends, school calendars, city pairs, booking windows, and even weather. AI helps us read these patterns faster and plan supplies more accurately. On the demand side, we use data models to understand which routes are likely to see higher traction, when customers are likely to book, and where additional capacity may be required. This supports pricing decisions, route planning, and better fleet deployment. For example, a leisure route may behave very differently from a business corridor, and the same route may perform differently on weekdays, weekends, or peak travel periods. On the operations side, AI also helps us improve safety and service consistency. Driver monitoring systems can identify signs of fatigue, distraction, or harsh driving behaviour, while real-time vehicle data helps our teams intervene faster when something needs attention. The real value of AI is not automation for its own sake. It has better predictability. It helps us improve utilisation, respond faster to demand shifts, and deliver a more reliable journey for customers.
Q: How does technology help monitor driver behaviour, speeding, fatigue, or harsh braking? Is there a real-time command centre that tracks every bus during its journey?
Technology plays a critical role in how we manage safety on every journey. Our buses are monitored in real time through a central operations command centre that maintains visibility across the fleet from departure to arrival. This allows our teams to proactively monitor trips and respond quickly if any operational issues arise. On the vehicle side, our buses are equipped with AI-enabled driver monitoring systems that help identify signs of fatigue, distraction, or unsafe driving behaviour. The system can detect events such as harsh braking, sudden acceleration, and other driving patterns that require attention, enabling timely intervention where necessary. Speed is another important area of control. Our buses operate with speed governors set at 80 kmph, ensuring that safety is built into operations rather than relying solely on driver judgment. Combined with live GPS tracking, this gives our operations team continuous visibility into the movement of every bus throughout its journey. Technology, however, is only one part of the equation. It is supported by preventive vehicle maintenance, regular driver training, periodic fleet evaluations, and clearly defined operating procedures. Our objective is to create multiple layers of safety, where technology, people, and processes work together to minimise risk and deliver a more reliable travel experience.
Q: Today’s passengers expect airline-like experiences. How is zingbus redefining intercity bus travel? How do you ensure consistency in passenger experience across different operator partners?
Expectations around comfort, safety, communication, and reliability have fundamentally changed, and intercity bus travel has to evolve accordingly. That is the thinking behind zingbus Maxx. We have reimagined the journey as a hospitality-led experience rather than simply a mode of transportation. From premium Volvo coaches and curated onboard hospitality to Gold Star Crew, bio-washrooms on select routes, premium rest stops, live tracking, and speed-governed operations, every element is designed to make the journey more comfortable, predictable, and reassuring. The customer response reinforces this approach. Maxx has achieved a customer satisfaction score of 90.5%, while customer retention is 50% higher than zingbus Plus, further reflecting the growing preference for premium, safety-led intercity travel. Delivering that experience consistently at scale is equally important. We also have dedicated crew trainers, and every member of our Gold Star Crew undergoes structured training before being deployed on Maxx services. The training focuses on hospitality, passenger assistance, safety procedures, communication standards, and service consistency, ensuring that every crew member delivers the same level of service regardless of the route. We work closely with our operator partners through clearly defined operating standards covering vehicle quality, preventive maintenance, safety protocols, and customer service. Technology-led monitoring, standard operating procedures, and regular quality audits support these standards. We continuously review operational performance and customer feedback to ensure that passengers receive the same experience across every Maxx journey.
Ultimately, premium travel is not defined by a luxury coach alone. It is built through consistency across every touchpoint, from booking and boarding to safety, hospitality, and arrival. That consistency is what builds customer trust and long-term loyalty.
Q: Pick-up points are often a pain point for travellers. How does zingbus select safe and convenient boarding locations? What technology helps passengers accurately locate their boarding point?
Pick-up points are one of the most important parts of the journey because they shape the customer’s first experience with the service. At zingbus, we select boarding locations based on accessibility, safety, and passenger convenience. We look at factors such as ease of reaching the location, lighting, traffic movement, space for safe boarding, proximity to key city areas, and suitability for women, families, and late-night travellers. On certain routes, we also offer zingbus lounges, giving passengers a safer and more comfortable waiting experience before boarding.
Technology helps reduce confusion at the pick-up point. Passengers receive the exact boarding location through app-based maps, GPS coordinates, live navigation links, and pre-journey communication. Driver and crew details are also available on the internal dashboard, enabling better coordination before and during the trip. Our crew coordinates with passengers before boarding and assists them through the process. In many cases, the crew goes beyond the standard SOP to help travellers locate the boarding point or manage last-minute concerns. The objective is to make boarding predictable and stress-free. A premium journey cannot begin with uncertainty at the pick-up point.
Q: zingbus is expanding its electric bus fleet. Which routes have shown the strongest business case for EV deployment? What are the biggest operational challenges in scaling electric intercity buses?
The strongest business case for electric intercity buses is on high-demand, operationally mature corridors where utilisation is predictable and charging infrastructure is available. For zingbus, routes such as Delhi-Dehradun have shown strong potential because they combine consistent passenger demand, manageable route length, and the ability to plan charging without affecting the customer experience. As part of our roadmap, we plan to deploy 50 electric buses in 2026, with a long-term target of 1,000 electric buses by 2030. The initial rollout will focus on corridors where route economics, charging access, and operational reliability work together. The biggest challenges in scaling electric intercity buses are battery range, highway charging availability, charging turnaround times, and maintenance readiness. Unlike city buses, intercity operations cover longer distances, so even a small charging or scheduling error can affect reliability and the overall passenger experience. That is why we believe the transition has to be phased and operationally disciplined. As battery technology improves and charging infrastructure expands, electric buses will become viable across more intercity routes. Our focus is to ensure that sustainability goes hand in hand with reliability, cost efficiency and a consistently high-quality travel experience.
Q: What innovations can passengers expect from zingbus over the next two to three years?
Over the next two to three years, our focus will be on making travel more personalised, more sustainable, and premium. We believe the future of intercity travel is not only about better buses or better technology, but about creating journeys that feel more relevant to each traveller. A key priority will be personalisation. We want to use technology to understand customer preferences better, from route choices and seat preferences to trip purpose and travel behaviour, so that the experience becomes more intuitive and seamless over time. We also see strong potential in community-led travel through offerings such as Chyll and Offbeat. These allow us to go beyond point-to-point transportation and create curated travel experiences for customers who want discovery, connection, and shared experiences as part of their journey. We will also continue expanding electric buses and making the Maxx experience more accessible to a wider customer base. Our belief is simple: premium, safe, and reliable travel should not remain limited to a small segment. Every traveller deserves a better intercity journey.
Q: zingbus has already neutralized more than 593,000 kg of CO₂ emissions. What sustainability goals have you set for the next five years?
A bus emits 70% less carbon per passenger per km and reduces urban congestion by 85% when compared to a car. Hence, as a company promoting shared mobility, Sustainability is an integral part of how we think about the future of intercity mobility. Neutralising over 593,000 kg of CO₂ emissions is an important milestone, but we see it as the beginning of a much larger journey.
Over the next five years, our focus will be on accelerating the transition to electric mobility while building the ecosystem needed to support it. We have already announced plans to deploy 50 electric buses in 2026, with a long-term vision of operating 1,000 electric buses by 2030. At the same time, we will continue improving fleet efficiency, increasing occupancy, and using technology to optimise routes and reduce unnecessary fuel consumption. For us, sustainability is also about encouraging more people to choose shared mobility over private vehicles. Every passenger who shifts from an individual car journey to a bus contributes to lowering the overall environmental footprint of intercity travel. Additionally, our goal is to ensure that sustainable travel does not come at the cost of comfort or reliability. We want to make cleaner, safer, and premium intercity travel accessible to more people while contributing meaningfully to India’s transition towards greener mobility.