The Maha Lakshmi scheme of the new Congress government in Telangana providing free travel facility to girls, women of all age groups and transgender persons in Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) buses has taken off well with a huge response.
“In the last 11 days since introduction of the scheme by the State government, more than three crore women passengers have availed this scheme with an average of 30 lakh passengers per day out of total passengers of 51 lakh,’‘ VC Sajjanar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, TSRTC told businessline on Wednesday.
The scheme, a replica of what was introduced in Karnataka by the Congress government, provides free travel in Pallevelugu and Express buses in districts and in city ordinary and metro express buses in cities under the corporation.
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After implementation of issue of “Zero fare tickets”, the occupancy of the Corporation has increased from 69 per cent (upto November-23) to 88 per cent after implementation of Maha Lakshmi Scheme. Many depots are achieving more than 100 per cent, he said.
FINANCE
Will the scheme lead to a loss for the corporation? “Definitely not,’‘ said Sajjanar adding that as the State Government would pay for the zero tickets, the increased occupancy will help TSRTC.
The State government has recently released ₹374 crore as subsidy for the scheme and the Corporation is planning to seek ₹250 crore per month initially. As per the preliminary projections, the implementation of the Mahalakshi scheme may cost about ₹1,500 crore per year.
FLEET
In tune with the increased traffic demand, the Corporation has geared up for inducting 1,050 new diesel buses including Pallevelugu, Express and a few AC buses.
Further, 1,050 electrical buses ( 550 on intercity routes in rural areas and 500 on intra-city routes in Hyderabad city) are being introduced by March-24 end which will meet additional load, the Managing Director added.
At present TSRTC has a fleet of 9,100 and about 50,000 staff on the rolls. Floating of tenders for hiring of private vehicles to augment the fleet is also on the anvil
CHALLENGES
The implementation of the scheme, however, has been a challenge to the personnel of the corporation. `` During my interaction with our employees, the conductors expressed challenges in identifying the authenticity of the passengers as they are carrying a Xerox copy of Aadhar or in the mobile where the photo is not clear or distorted. Hence, it is once again clarified that the women passengers shall necessarily carry any of the valid original photo ID card such as Aadhar Card, Voter ID card and Driving licence,’‘ Sajjnar said.
Identity Card issued by Government of India Departments/State government departments/Public Sector Undertakings, Directorate of Disabled and Senior Citizens Welfare, Government of Telangana, establishing that they are domicile of Telangana.
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Many of the passengers are boarding the express buses and alighting at intermittent places which are not designated stages, therefore the direct fare paying passengers are expressing their inconvenience and also resulting in increased journey time.
The Express buses will be operated as per the identified stages so as not to cause any inconvenience to the fare paid passengers and also to avoid deflection to other modes, Sajjanar said.