Thane gets first Tejaswini bus; service to start soon

Two years after being proposed, the first women-only bus was inaugurated on Wednesday.

Two years after being proposed, the first women-only bus was inaugurated on Wednesday.

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Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) will soon start plying Tejaswini buses.

Fifty buses will be added into Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) fleet by this month-end. TMT buses ply on 97 routes.

“Tejaswini buses will ply on all routes of TMT during peak hours from 6am to 10am and 6pm to 10pm. During non-peak hours, all can travel by Tejaswini,” said a senior TMT official.

TMT said it will hire around 150 women conductors.

“Within a week, we will procure 10 buses. The buses will have CCTV cameras, panic button and GPS,” said Sandeep Malvi, TMT manager.

According to the TMT official, the buses will be decided on how crowded the routes are.

“The buses, which cost ₹28 lakh, have 27 seats each. The state government has provided ₹6 crore to TMT for the buses,” said a TMT official.

The state government had announced to allot around 300 buses in major cities such as Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur and Kalyan-Dombivli.

“Tejaswini bus service will start in 20 days as the proposal of hiring women conductors is yet to be sanctioned. However, no separate proposal has been tabled to hire women drivers. We will hire both men and women drivers for Tejaswini buses,” said a TMT official.

The buses aim at proving a safer commuter to women commuters. “During peak hours, buses plying on the busy routes are crowded. Women commuters have been facing problems. We are looking forward to travelling by Tejaswini as it will be convenient for us,” said Smita Dave, 36, a commuter from Sawarkar Nagar, Thane.