Chennai: MTC’s pink buses go live from today | Chennai News – Times of India

CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Chennai, is likely to launch pink buses on Saturday. The buses will provide free travel to women. The pink colour would help women differentiate ‘free (ordinary) buses’ from express or deluxe category buses, where they have to buy tickets.
The move comes after several requests from women passengers that many ordinary buses don’t have stickers (exclusive for women) on the front windshield. As a trial run, MTC will be launching the pink buses on select routes next week and would expand the service to other routes based on the response.
According to official data, of the 3,300 buses being operated by the MTC, nearly half are for ordinary services. The corporation’s officials have said the number of women passengers travelling in city buses has recorded a rise.
The free commute for women scheme has not found enough takers in MTC conductors, who said they were losing out on incentives (based on daily ticket collection) ever since the scheme was launched. To resolve this, the government has agreed that their incentives would be doubled soon.