Women and transgender individuals will be able to travel on Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and cluster buses for free thanks to the Delhi government’s planned introduction of the “Saheli Smart Card“.
The Saheli Smart Card programme is anticipated to launch on August 15, Independence Day, according to sources.
The programme is intended to take the place of the “Pink Ticket” system, which was introduced by the administration led by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Women who lived in Delhi were granted pink passes, and bus drivers received payment based on how many tickets were sold.
According to the source, “Transgender people and women who live in Delhi and are 12 years of age or older will be able to travel on DTC and Cluster buses for free.”
The AAP introduced the “Pink Ticket” programmeme in 2019. Data from the Delhi government itself shows that as of the end of January 2023, 100 crore pink tickets had been given to women. More than 150 crore pink tickets had been distributed by November 2024.
“In 2022, nearly 32% of all passengers travelled in a month thanks to free travel for women via Pink tickets,” the announcement stated.
More than 160 crore people rode Delhi buses in 2019–20. It fell to 71 crores in 2020–21 due to COVID, and then it recovered somewhat to 93 crores in 2021–22. It has risen to about 125 crores since April 2022, or nearly 75% of the pre-COVID figures, the statement continued.
The government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, asserted on March 29 that the initiative and the Delhi Transport Corporation as a whole had been mismanaged, resulting in a loss of Rs 70,471 crore.
AAP transformed a lucrative department into one that was losing money. A total of Rs 70,471 crore was lost by DTC. An operational loss of Rs 14,198 crore was incurred. Only 468 of the 814 routes had buses operating on them. All of the money was spent on ads. Not even the Rs 233 crore that the Centre gave was used. During their term, the number of buses decreased from 4344 to 3937, the Delhi CM stated before the Assembly.
CM Rekha Gupta was referring to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that said that crores of rupees from Delhi taxpayers had been squandered as a result of the government’s poor management and carelessness. The Committee on Government Undertakings has been instructed to provide its report within three months after receiving this one.
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