NEW DELHI: The total number of pink passes used in the city has crossed the 100 crore mark since the launch of the free travel scheme for women in government buses, said the government on Friday.
“The national capital was the first state in the country to initiate free travel for women on such a large scale. Public transport is an essential pillar of the development of the city. In a city like Delhi, even with its vast network of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, bus ridership has also seen good growth over the years,” said the government.
It added, “In 2022, DTC and DIMTS buses combined saw an average daily ridership of 36 lakh, hitting as high as 40 lakh daily in a few months. In 2022, free travel for women via pink tickets contributed to nearly 32 percent of the total number of passengers travelling in a month.”
Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said, “It is an important milestone not just for the government but for the citizens as well. The city has shown how free travel can empower women. The rising number of women bus travellers over the years shows the impact it has created and how much they have benefited from this scheme. The government has spent Rs 1,000 crore on the pink passes issued over these years.”
The government said that if the ridership of Delhi buses (DTC and DIMTS combined) is to be seen, it is slowly inching back towards the pre-Covid numbers. In 2019-20, Delhi buses had a ridership of more than 160 crores.
Due to the Covid pandemic in the years 2020 and 2021, it dropped to 71 crores in 2020-21, slightly recovering to 93 crores in 2021-22. Since April 2022 till date, it has reached nearly 125 crores, almost 75 per cent of the pre-Covid numbers.
Across these years, since the beginning of free travel for women in Oct 2019, the pink ticket ridership has grown from 25 per cent in 2020-21 and 28 per cent in 2021-22 to nearly 33 per cent in 2022-23 to date.