CHENNAI: In an effort to ensure safety for women, the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) on Friday said women travelling alone will not require to share their berths with unknown people in government sleeper buses.
According to a circular, the transport department, which operates about 300 sleeper buses a day, said two single berths — 1 LB and 4 LB — are reserved for women travelling alone in all non-AC sleeper, AC sleeper and AC seater cum sleeper buses. This feature will be available from Saturday.
AC and non-AC sleeper buses each have 10 single berths. Single berths are in huge demand and are reserved first. During festival seasons, weekends and extended holidays, women who book tickets at the last-minute face a lot of inconvenience.
“The two berths will be allotted only for women. If it isn’t occupied until the time of departure, the conductor can allot it to men,” said a top official from the State transport department. At present, private omnibuses too have reserved seats for women. However, a section of women travellers expressed displeasure over the algorithm followed by private buses.
Rani Arumugam, a regular traveller from Madurai said, “Whether it is a man or woman, we don’t prefer sleeping next to an unknown person. Omni buses reserve double-berths for women for optimum utilisation of single berths. At the time of booking, when a woman chooses a double-berth for travel, another berth is automatically reserved for a woman. The successive woman traveller will only have the option of selecting one of the seats in the double berths earmarked for ‘women’.”
Given that more women travel without companions, the number of single berths reserved for women should be enhanced, said N Swapna, another traveller from Hosur.
Overview
1,056: Total number of SETC buses
300: Non-AC sleeper, AC sleeper & AC seater cum sleeper buses
Two single berths: 1 LB and 4 LB reserved for single women