Delhi Finance Minister Atishi announces ₹340 crore for pink tickets, ₹510 crore for new e-buses

Hailing the pink tickets as a success story of the Delhi government, Finance Minister Atishi allocated ₹340 crore to the scheme.

Pink tickets were introduced by the Delhi government in 2019 to enable women to travel for free on public buses.

“In 2014-15, if a girl from a common family wanted to go to college for her studies, her parents would refuse because the expenses for travelling were too high. Many women could not work because most of their salary was spent on travelling,” the Minister said in her budget speech.

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Ms. Atishi said the number of pink tickets has consistently increased in the past few years. Nearly 17.7 crore such tickets were issued in 2020-21, and in 2022-23 the number was 40.2 crore. She said close to 11 lakh women travel for free on the city’s buses daily.

The Minister said ₹500 crore had been earmarked for Delhi Metro and ₹510 crore for e-buses. She added that the Delhi government was working to provide the city with over 10,000 buses by 2025, of which 80% would be e-buses. “In 2014, around 24 lakh passengers used to travel daily on the Delhi Metro. Today, more than 60 lakh passengers use the metro every day,” she said.

The Delhi government did not announce any fresh schemes for the transport sector.