Record surge in women patronage in KSRTC on Priyadarshini scheme’s inaugural day
The launch of the 'Priyadarshini' scheme in Kerala, offering free bus travel to women and transgender persons, resulted in a massive surge in female ridership. While the scheme increased accessibility, it also caused a significant drop in male passengers and a short-term revenue loss for the KSRTC.
Why it matters
This policy experiment demonstrates the impact of gender-focused public transport subsidies on ridership patterns and state-run transit finances.
The inaugural day of the Priyadarshini scheme, which was implemented on KSRTC Ordinary buses by the State government from Monday (June 15), witrnessed an unprecedented level of ridership among women passengers. The corporation issued tickets to a total of 13.29 lakh women passengers, an increase of 81% in comparison to the 7.34 lakh women passengers who travelled on the same day the previous week (June 8).
The article presents both the success of the ridership increase and the financial challenges faced by the transit corporation.
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