Soon, smart cards for women availing free bus travel facility in Punjab

Rajmeet Singh

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Chandigarh, July 29

Punjab is set to introduce smart cards for women availing free bus travel facility on the state transport buses. Though the populist scheme would continue, but it could be tweaked to target the rightful beneficiaries and rationalise the expenditure on the scheme.

A top government functionary said the modalities for the new cards were being worked out. Once issued, the smart cards would replace Aadhaar cards as identity proof for availing the free facility.

Economics of free travel

3.5 lakh women avail the free facility every day

42 km of average travel by every beneficiary daily

Rs 60 crore is paid annually by govt to Transport Dept

Happy cards in Haryana

In Haryana, Happy cards have been issued under the Haryana Antyodaya Parivar Parivahan Yojana of the Department of Transport to provide facility of free travel up to 1,000 km every year to poor families in government buses.

Will help analyse profile of the beneficiaries

The one-time investment of Rs 16 crore will go a long way in streamlining the free travel scheme. It will enable the department to analyse the profile of the beneficiaries. An official

An internal exercise carried out by the Transport Department reveals that about 3.5 lakh women avail the free bus travel facility daily. On an average, a single beneficiary travels around 42 km every day. The government pays around Rs 60 crore annually to the Transport Department. The funds are released by the Department of Social Security and Women and Child Development on the claim raised by the Transport Department.

To prepare the one-time smart cards, around Rs 16 crore was required. “The one-time investment of Rs 16 crore will go a long way in streamlining the free travel scheme. It will enable the department to analyse the profile of the beneficiaries,” said an official.

Not opposed to free bus travel by state transport buses, private bus operators demand that same facility should be extended to them as well. “Because of the free bus travel, private bus operators are suffering huge loses,” said JS Grewal of the Small Bus Operators Association.

Women are now travelling more in government buses, especially those from lower income groups. The scheme is bleeding the state transport undertakings. The increase in the number of women travellers who avail free bus service has resulted in mounting dues and expenditure. This has also resulted in the income from bus passes coming down drastically.

Started in 2021 during the Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government, currently Aadhaar card is accepted as the unique identification card from the women travellers to avail free bus travel.

As per the existing practice, the conductor of a bus has to feed the unique ID number of the beneficiary in the electronic ticketing machine.