The Congress government has rolled out Shakti, the free bus travel scheme for women, one of the party’s five poll assurances, in Bengaluru on June 11. Women are eligible to travel for free in government-run non-luxury buses operated by BMTC, KSRTC, NWRTC, and NEKRTC from 1 p.m. today.
The free bus ride will also apply to destinations within 20 km of Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in Nanjangud, near Mysuru, on Saturday.
The windscreens of city, ordinary, and express buses that make up roughly 94 percent of the schedules run by the state's four road transport corporations (KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC, and KKRTC) will have "Free travel for women" labels placed on them.
It is estimated that nearly 42 lakh women would avail themselves of the service on a daily basis.
Also read | Karnataka women can travel up to 20 km inside border states free of cost in buses: Siddaramaiah
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy were in attendance at the launch programme at Vidhana Soudha today.
Siddaramaiah and his Cabinet colleagues are expected to take a bus ride till Kempe Gowda bus stand, Majestic, where both BMTC and KSRTC buses commence services to different destinations in the city and the State, respectively.
The expected annual cost of implementing the plan is Rs 4,051.56 crore. RTCs operate 18,609 buses everyday across the state.
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