

Public transport is an essential service. It plays an important role in providing employment, education, and health care services, especially for people of low-income groups. Despite the availability of sufficient public transport, many times commuters face difficulties in accessing public transport, so efforts are being made by the government to improve access to it. The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is planning to build the Jammu Light Metro system as part of a smart city mission to make good public transport available to commuters. But generally, there is a gap between the transit service and those who intend to avail of it. This paper is regarding a research study to access the futuristic service gap which will exist between Commuter and the Metro lite system in Jammu City using Public Transport Accessibility Level methodology. The methodology uses parameters like peak hour, bus frequency, reliability factor, walk distance, and walk speed to determine the public transport accessibility index. The obtained accessibility values have been linked to the base map to create heat maps showing accessibility levels throughout the municipal area in the form of colour codes representing different ranges of accessibility. Further heat maps have been analysed and recommendations for transportation planning have been made for policymakers.