How do Indians travel? Where do they travel? And what purpose do they travel for? These are some of the questions that a new survey will try to find responses to. The National Statistics Office will conduct the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) in the coming months at the behest of the Ministry of Railways. “The NHTS will collect information on day-to-day travel within the country. The results will provide a picture of the travel patterns and choices of all types of people. The purpose of the Travel Survey is to understand who is travelling as well as when, why, where and how they are travelling,” said an official note of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation. The survey will enable to assess the spatial demand matrix for different transportation modes including rail, road, airlines and influencing factors affecting the mode and destination choice. It will also assess the price elasticity of travel demand for each mode of travel. Further, within the overall origin-destination rail demand matrix, assess the class-wise demand for different coaches to help Indian Railways formulate a coach production plan. Part of the 80th round of surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the travel survey will be a one-year exercise and is expected to commence from July this year. Similar surveys are conducted in several other countries to understand passenger movement and demand for various modes of transport, which help in better planning. The Indian Railways carried over 6.9 billion passengers in 2023-24. Meanwhile, domestic air passenger traffic in India was 161.3 million in 2024. Apart from the NHTS, the NSSO will also conduct the domestic tourism expenditure survey and a survey on health as part of the 80th round of surveys that will be undertaken in 2025.