Topography maps prepared by survey organizations are major source of road network for any area across the world. Thematic maps showing the road network could be generated from such topography maps in the scales ranging from 1:250,000 to 1:25,000. These road maps will represent the connectivity of all the major settlements, but cannot represent few settlements (villages) in certain areas particularly, in coastal parts where the density of settlements (villages) is very high. This is due to the limitation of scale at which these maps were originally prepared. Route maps for any long routes can be derived by utilizing these maps. But planning and designing of bus route services for limited distances in the rural areas where the density of villages is high, the topo maps would not be ideal while considering the best local connectivity. The study was identified by keeping the need of reliable information of image locations put together with road connectivity in rural areas. It was observed that the concern authorities, i.e., the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) are depending up on the not-to-scale maps or Survey of India (SOI) prepared topography maps for design and planning of the Bus service routes. Such input sources could not provide the representation of interior villages/hamlets on the maps due to scale limitations.
The present study is an attempt to create large scaled reliable road network map desired by a local transport unit called a bus depot or regional management, which could be used as a reliable scientific input to the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) Planning Department. These maps are used for identifying the unconnected settlements and invention of new routes, based on population analysis. This study could be a model work with redefined and accurate bus routes of both long route and local services in the study area. For example, Vikarabad bus depot of Rangareddy (old) District in Telangana State. The Geographic Information System (GIS) based route maps would enable the concerned officials to plan, design and run their public transport services (RTC Buses) as per the public requirement/ convenient and to achieve better revenues to the corporation.