Woman city buses in Bhubaneswar
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday launched an all-woman city bus service, nearly four months after introducing a similar transport service for women between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack on the occasion of International Women’s day.
City bus operator DTS launched four new buses as a part of the new service meant exclusively for women passengers. The four buses will operate in the two routes- KIIT Campus to Balakati (route 306) and airport to Nandan Kanan (route 207). The buses will ply from 8.30 am to 11 am and 4.30 pm to 7 pm. The routes have been selected keeping in mind the presence of majority of the companies and educational institutes in the areas.
Beyond the scheduled time reserved for carrying women passengers, the buses will cater to general passengers. The buses will not have women as its support staff. DTS Chairman Nishikant Mishra said they had advertised for recruitment to the position of women bus drivers and bus conductors to run the four buses, but they are yet to receive any response for these openings.
While the exterior of the all-woman buses are painted red, several messages, relating to women empowerment and safety, are emblazoned on the vehicles. Female commuters welcomed the move.
City mayor A N Jena said the bus operator would soon install CCTV cameras in all the 125 city buses, including the four rolled out on Monday, running in Bhubaneswar, Puri and Cuttack.
“The CCTV cameras would keep an eye on anti-social activities,” Jena said.
The regular bus fares would apply to the special vehicles, said Nishikant Mishra, chairman of Dream Team Sahara, the private operator of the bus service.
The State Government had launched a similar bus service in March to ply between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. But the service failed to elicit not many takers. DTS officials said they were hopeful of new service to be successful in city.
