'Govt will recruit around 200 women drivers for DTC buses'

New Delhi: Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Tuesday said the government plans to have 200 women bus drivers with the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) as part of its effort to provide employment opportunities to them.

The first batch of 11 women will now start their careers as bus drivers and have been deployed under various depots of DTC with 180 more in line to join. "I want to thank all women today being handed over the letters of appointment today, for their courage to take up bus driving as a career choice and becoming a role model for society. I am very hopeful that they will inspire more women to become bus drivers with Delhi's Transportation fleet," Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said.

The government's consistent endeavours to induct women as bus drivers under its city transportation fleet also encouraged women to voice their willingness to become bus drivers in the state public transport services.

"I am very hopeful that with more women driving Delhi government's buses, the public transportation in the city will become safer and passenger friendly. I wish them the very best for the future," Gahlot said.

The DIMTS under its CSR support has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Society for Driving Training Institute (SDTI) to implement the programme. The women will be equipped to drive the government's buses under its public transportation fleet and 81 women in two batches have already completed the training and 38 have earned their Heavy Motor Vehicle (HMV) licences.

Around 10 women are currently undergoing training at the DTC's training centre in Nandnagari for induction as bus drivers and 31 more have applied to undertake training at the centre. The government had earlier reserved 33 per cent of 4,261 new e-auto registrations, especially for women drivers.

The government had relaxed the norms and eligibility criteria to recruit women as drivers within its bus operations by reducing the minimum height criteria from 159 cm to 153 cm and 'experience criteria' for induction as bus drivers to one month for women applicants.

The step increased opportunities for women's employment within the combined fleet strength of approximately 7,370 buses in the DTC and the DIMTS. The move also opened the doors for women to be employed within the 15,000 strong workforces of bus drivers within the state public transportation.

The government had implemented several initiatives to increase the participation of women in the transportation workforce with Gahlot launching 'Mission Parivartan', an initiative to train women to obtain their HMV licences at the Society for Driving Training Institute (SDTI) in Burari.

The government had also launched a scheme to provide financial support to women willing to take driver training to become professional taxi drivers in the future. Under the project 50 per cent of the training, approximately Rs 4,800 for each woman will be borne by the Transport Department.