BENGALURU: One of the Congress-led Karnataka government’s five guarantees - the ambitious Shakti scheme -- that offers free travel to women in non-premium services will complete a month on Tuesday. According to data from the bus corporations, from June 11 till July 9, more than 16.09 crore women have availed the facility. The total value of the tickets issued in this period was Rs 382 crore.
Of the four bus corporations, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) recorded the highest women ridership with 5.18 crore making use of the Shakti scheme from June 11 till July 9.
Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) witnessed 4.83 crore women ridership, followed by North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) with 3.87 crore and Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) with 2.21 crore in the said period.
KSRTC topped the total ticket value issued to women under the scheme with Rs 143.13 crore, followed by NWKRTC with Rs 99.16 crore, KKRTC with Rs 73.41 crore and BMTC with Rs 66.81 crore.
Sources said the average daily ridership of BMTC in 2022 was 27.34 lakh and KSRTC 23.59 lakh which witnessed a significant jump after the introduction of the Shakti scheme. The average daily ridership of BMTC crossed 38 lakh and KSRTC 30 lakh indicating that the ridership of men too has gone up, sources revealed adding that the revenue of the bus corporations too witnessed a jump.
“The numbers indicate that 31.72 crore passengers travelled to tourist and religious destinations in the bus corporations (including BMTC) between June 11 and July 9,” sources said.