City women seek improved service over exclusive busesnight services

GUWAHATI: The Kamrup district transport office has been trying to provide separate buses for women to ensure their safety. However, the service has elicited poor response so far.
On July 23, the DTO and district administration launched 10 buses exclusively for women passengers. These buses are supervised by female conductors. However, the service was stopped for a couple of days following the lukewarm response.
The service was resumed with an extended timetable and the government roped in brand ambassador Zerifa Wahid to popularize it.
"Although the idea of women-only buses may not be new, we should appreciate the district administration for trying to ensure the safety of women in the city. We will introduce more such buses, but only if women want," said Zerifa. She even visited colleges and universities to motivate girls to use the all-women buses.
However, women in the city said a late evening bus service is more important than exclusive buses for them.
"We feel the need for buses which can provide services till late in the evening. We face problems whenever we need to travel after 8pm," said Sheetal, a young professional, who travels by bus to work.
"I also feel the need for late-evening city buses. I hope the DTO will think over the issue and take action," Zerifa told TOI.
The main cause behind the scarcity of late-evening bus service is the lack of adequate drivers. Bus owners and their associations said, while they understood the problem of commuters, they faced trouble finding drivers to work late-evening shifts.
"It becomes difficult for a driver to work from 6am to 10pm. Many buses could not run due to lack of drivers," said Pramod Kalita, a city-based bus owner.
The DTO's initiative to provide commercial driving training to youngsters may solve the problem. "We have decided to train youngsters who have passed class ten as drivers. We can then provide bus services after hours," said officer Gautam Das.