Tamil Nadu CM Vijay turns bus conductor, hands out tickets

Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister, C. Joseph Vijay, briefly took on the role of bus conductor on Friday as he inaugurated a major expansion of the state's free bus travel scheme. The event took place in Chennai, where Vijay interacted with passengers and distributed free tickets to women travelers aboard a government bus after the launch of the expanded Vetri Payanam scheme on Gandhi Jayanti.

The primary objective of the expanded scheme is to improve access to public transport for women, students, and others who require daily transportation for work, education, healthcare, or running small businesses. According to the Times of India, the earlier scheme provided free travel mainly on ordinary buses in metropolitan and urban areas and hill routes for distances up to 40km.

However, the expanded scheme now covers a wider range of buses, including Express, Limited Stop Service (LSS), and Deluxe buses operating in metropolitan and urban areas, as well as Mofussil Ordinary services and Ghat Ordinary buses on routes exceeding 40km. A total of 12,692 buses operated by seven state transport corporations are now included in the expanded scheme, which accounts for about 69% of the 18,413 scheduled buses and 85% of the total scheduled single trips in the state.

The government estimates that around 8.43 million women stand to benefit from the free travel every day.