
VIJAYAWADA: The State government is making efforts to implement the free bus travel for women scheme from Ugadi. The APSRTC is also gearing up to launch the scheme.
A decision on the free bus travel scheme is likely to be taken at the Cabinet meeting to be held on Friday (January 17). The Group of Ministers on the free bus travel scheme has reportedly submitted its report to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The report is said to have underlined the need for hiring more buses to implement the scheme from Ugadi. Free bus travel for women is one of the election promises made by the TDP-led NDA as part of ‘Super Six’. However, the NDA could not implement the scheme soon after coming to power due to various reasons such as availability of required number of buses and also formulation of a robust mechanism for its success.
The government set up the Group of Ministers to study the free bus travel for women scheme in other States before launching it in Andhra Pradesh. It is headed by Transport Minister M Ramprasad Reddy. Women and Child Welfare Minister Gummadi Sandhya Rani and Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha are its members, while Kantilal Dande, Principal Secretary (Roads and Buildings Department) is the convener.
The Group of Ministers visited Karnataka, Telangana and Delhi, where the free bus travel for women scheme is being implemented, to study it. The Group of Ministers is said to have come up with several recommendations, which include increasing the bus fleet, invitation of tenders to hire buses, renewal of existing ones, recruitment of staff, particularly conductors, based on the demand.
“There is a huge shortage of hired buses in the APSRTC. Also, several hired bus contractors are not interested in running their buses with the APSRTC due to the increased number of trips and other issues. Instead of purchasing new buses, the RTC may go for hired buses as it will serve the purpose now. The report has also made several other suggestions such as seeking financial assistance to the RTC from the State government to compensate the revenue loss,” sources said.