The understanding of various nuances related to urban transportation system leads to better management of the urban development process itself. In India, the issue received a serious attention as a policy perspective only in 2006 with declaration of the National Urban Transport Policy and subsequent initiatives including that of Twelve Five Years Plan and declaration of National Urban Transport Policy again in 2014 have a focus on the issues of lack of Constitutional and institutional authoritative measures for urban issues. The present paper brings to light policy perspectives and mechanisms of bus transportation in the city of Guwahati within a long span. A connected issue of road infrastructure also has been highlighted. It is an investigation of the ground realities, where the question is raised about how public the whole pattern of transportation is. It reveals in what ways the system in the city departs from the promoted and state sponsored moves and has grown on its own. The paper is a statement on one of the issues of urban development pattern in the developing societies.