Free travel concession offered to female passengers in town services operated by Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Kumbakonam Division, is said to have been utilised well by beneficiaries for short-distance commuting to their workplace or personal reasons.
Enquiries reveal that the patronage for the town service vehicles offering free travel to female passengers started picking up gradually as the women heading to nearby towns on account of their employment/household business or to call on their relatives/friends frequently from the rural pockets became conversant with the timings of gratis travel vehicles.
On an average, a little over 1.25 lakh women passengers per day were utilising these services operated by the TNSTC, Kumbakonam Division, in 12 districts in Central Tamil Nadu. The patronage is likely to increase further once the normal life returns after the containment of COVID-19 virus pandemic, official sources said.
Meanwhile, trade union representatives are sceptical about the continuance of the gratis travel for women as they fear that such sops would only aggravate the financial position of the Corporation which is already looking up to the State government for allocation of funds to ensure normal functioning both in terms of operation of bus services and fulfilling the financial obligation to the workforce.
Already, the town bus operations do not contribute much to the total daily bus fare collections of the Corporation in view of their fare structure. Such being the case, allowing all the female passengers to travel free would not be a viable option since already a section of commuters such as school children, journalists, freedom fighters and others have been bestowed with gratis travel, they said.
