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Friday March 29, 2024

Women to get free Delhi Metro rides

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
June 04, 2019

ISLAMABAD: In an interesting move, the women in Indian capital New Delhi will be given free rides in Delhi Metro and other DTC cluster buses.

The Delhi government will bear their travel expenses. It has been announced by chief minister Delhi Kejriwal on Monday in New Delhi. For the remaining part of this financial year, the cost of this comes to Rs700-800 crore, he said.

Kejriwal said he has asked officials to study the proposal. The Delhi government has also sought feedback from the public. Officers have been given a week to prepare a detailed report after which a proposal will be brought in the cabinet, he said.

The step will not lead to congestion in the Delhi Metro as the daily ridership will increase by just one lakh. Currently, 25 lakh people travel by metro daily, he said. He also said that his government accords top priority to women safety and has passed a tender to install 1.50 lakh CCTV cameras across the city. "A survey for 70,000 CCTVs has been completed and these will be installed by December. A proposal for another 1.40 lakh cameras is under consideration,” he said. As many as 1.50 lakh CCTV cameras will be installed in government-run schools by November, Kejriwal added.

At a public meeting on Saturday, the chief minister had said his government was considering to make metro and bus travels free for women in Delhi “to encourage them to use public transport”. Kejriwal had also said his government is in touch with city’s power regulator to bring down fixed charge component of electricity bill.