Bus travel for women: Which states offer it free and how to avail?
Bus travel for women is free in eight states and one union territory of India. Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Jammu
Bus travel for women is free in eight states and one union territory of India. Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh have either announced or implemented schemes to make bus travel for women in most government-run buses free. But on-ground implementation and rules differ across states. Another point of discrepancy is the expansion of the free facility to transgender persons. Here’s a guide to know the differences and facilities in each state. Understanding zero-ticket travel ‘Zero-ticket’ travel is a phrase that is common across regions which offer free commuting on buses. This does not mean that tickets are not issued. It means that the conductor will issue a ‘zero-ticket’. This is a ticket that levies no charge on the passenger and is for records. In some cases, you may use smart cards issued by your local transport authority. Who can travel? The verification of the passenger (linked to the geography of the beneficiary) is done by the conductor before issuing a ‘zero-ticket’ to the relevant passenger. Identification proofs for free travel differ by state. But the most common ones include the Aadhaar card, Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC), VB-G RAMG job card, Ayushman Bharat health card, driving license, PAN card, passport, pension document with photograph, identity card of Central/State government/PSUs, and identity cards issued by schools/colleges/universities. The use of smart cards to verify the identity of the passenger availing free travel on buses is also common. The fine-print for each State and region differs. Tamil Nadu ‘Vidiyal Payanam Thittam’ scheme was inaugurated in May 2021 under the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) government. It covers women, persons with disabilities, and transgender persons. In May 2025, four years after the inauguration of the scheme, the government announced that so far 682.02 crore free rides have been availed through this scheme, the government said. While transgender persons have made 36.89 lakh journeys, persons with disabilities have undertaken 3.78 crore journeys. Due to this scheme, women were able to save up to ₹888 per month. In March 2026, the then Transport Minister S.S. Sivasankar said that the number of women passengers using the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) buses has increased from 40% to 70% after the introduction of the scheme.
However, the State Planning Commission report released in 2022 noted some issues in Tiruppur region of the State, including rude behaviour by bus operators and conductors towards women availing the free commute. West Bengal has announced free bus travel only for women in the state on June 1, 2026. The free bus travel was announced under the ‘Annapurna Bhandar’scheme. This employs a smart card with a QR code to verify the identity of the passenger before the conductor issues a ‘zero-ticket’ to the woman. It does not cover transgender persons. Until the issuance of the smart card, showing any of the government-issued identity cards for free bus travel is an alternative to avail the facility. The Transport Department of the Government of West Bengal has not given out any data and the website till the date of publication does not mention the free bus travel scheme for women. Delhi The national capital announced free bus travel for women and transgender persons in October 2019 under the Aam Aadmi Party government. This employed a ‘pink ticket’ system in which the conductor gave a pink ticket to the passengers availing the service. This was transitioned to a ‘Pink Saheli Smart Card’ in March 2025. But three months later, visits by The Hindu to five distribution centres and interviews with applicants revealed that transgender persons are mostly unable to obtain the cards despite being listed as eligible beneficiaries. At four of the five centres visited, officials said the cards were not issued to transgender persons despite the card explicitly mentioning “female/transgender”. At one centre, officials agreed to issue the card only after this was pointed out. Punjab launched a similar free bus scheme for women in 2021 on all government run buses. Raghav Chadha, who was then the co-incharge of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab unit had pointed out that the scheme was “poor copy” of the Delhi scheme implemented by the Kejriwal government. Apart from politicking, overreliance of the State’s transport network on private buses led to issues for commuters availing the scheme. The scheme did not explicitly cover transgender persons like other states.
The BriefWire