25 women drivers to steer fleet of Himachal Road Transport Corporation buses

25 women bus drivers will be recruited in HP’s biggest public transport Himachal Road Transport Corporation

With an aim to give impetus to women empowerment, 25 women bus drivers will be recruited in state’s biggest public transport Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) said deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri after presiding over the meeting on Board of Directors of the corporation.

Currently, Seema Thakur is the only woman in the state who is serving as a bus driver. (HT File Photo)

“Twenty-five posts of women drivers will be created and the matter will go to the service committee. Three women had applied in the recently postponed driver recruitment,” he said. HRTC has a fleet of 3,142 buses which ply on more than 7,000 routes. Currently, Seema Thakur is the only woman in the state who is serving as a bus driver. The state government has decided that the number of women bus drivers will be increased. Deputy CM Agnihotri has instructed the corporation management to recruit women bus drivers.

After the Agnihotri’s directions, HRTC management has decided to recruit 25 women bus drivers. These 25 posts will be reserved for women only. HRTC managing director, Sandeep Kumar said the matter to recruit 25 posts will go to the service committee and after that, it will be sent for approval of the state government. He said that in February, applications were invited for 276 posts of drivers, in which three women had also applied. The MD said that earlier it was not the case that separate posts were advertised only for women, but now these 25 posts will be for women only. There are about 4,500 drivers in HRTC, out of which only one is a woman.

The deputy CM said that there are about 22-lakh vehicles in the state, and more than 16-lakh people have driving licences, out of which about 1.25 lakh women have driving licences. He said Seema Thakur is driving a Volvo bus, and now the management has been instructed to recruit women bus drivers so that a sense of equality can be seen. Agnihotri said that the corporation has a reputation of its own in the state and this reputation will be further strengthened. He said that the functioning of the corporation will be streamlined and the focus will be on increasing the means of income. He said that the state government will include 556 new buses in the HRTC fleet, out of which the government has given green signal to include 196 buses in the corporation’s fleet and the remaining 360 buses will soon be included in the transport corporation’s fleet. He said that 75 new electric-buses will soon join the corporation’s fleet, a tender has been issued regarding this. In total, action is on to deploy 110 electric buses on the roads to serve the common people.