RTC spreads Mother’s Day cheer

Gifts free ride to women travelling with young children

Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s gift to mothers — free travel along with children aged up to five years, across all its services on the occasion of International Mothers’ Day on Sunday — brought smiles to many faces.

“This is my first such experience. I felt special,” said a passenger who was with her toddler on a 16 route bus from ECIL to Secunderabad.

For bus conductors and drivers too, it was a new experience, who made sure the women took the seats and also informed them about the corporation’s Mother’s Day offer.

Although it was a hot and sunny Sunday that discouraged travel, many depot officials and bus station in-charges expressed satisfaction over passengers’ response. “Ever since [V.C.] Sajjanar sir took over [as managing director], TSRTC is more visible among the people. Today’s free ride is like a small step to honour mothers, and also an act of social responsibility,” an official at the Secunderabad bus station said.

Free rides in the city limits was smooth, and evoked smiles, senior officials said. A summary of the State-wide performance, corresponding tp the approximate number of benefited riders, would be gathered and made available soon.

Free bus services in districts such as Rajanna-Sircilla and Nalgonda was exciting even for officials, who ensured that no conductor or driver refused the offer to mothers due to lack of awareness.

At bus stations in Sircilla, station supervisors were seen informing mothers while boarding the bus, and the conductors too greeting them on the occasion. “Just to avoid any misunderstanding, we made every driver and conductor sign a special register that informs them about the offer at the beginning of their duty hours. Some conductors even took pictures and video clips of the happy women riders with their children, and some others got emotional about the experience,” a senior official in Nalgonda said.

While RTC in undivided Nalgonda ran 680 bus services on Sunday, a back-of-envelope calculation by officials suggested that about 6,000 mother-children riders enjoyed the special offer.