'50% discount on ticket for travellers taking SETC bus for 5 times in 1 month'

CHENNAI: Passengers taking five trips on the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) buses in a calendar month could book with a 50 per cent discount from their next journey onwards, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar announced.

Replying to the debate on the demand for grants for the Transport and Motor Vehicle Acts - Administration department, the minister said that the 50 per cent discount from the sixth trip would be applicable to all types of SETC buses.

To encourage women passengers to travel alone or in a group without any fear, the Minister said that four seats would be earmarked for women passengers in all the SETC buses. "Seats will be available for women passengers to book online until 24 hours of the commencement of the journey," he said.

The Minister said that women's self-help groups would be given priority in running the canteens in the bus depots. To encourage the entrepreneurship of youngsters, he said that they would be allowed to book parcel services on the buses by paying monthly Rs 6,000.

Under the Ungal Thoguthiyil Muthalamaichar, Sivasankar said that the MTC's Avadi and Padiyanallur bus depots and terminus would be modernised with concrete flooring, high mast lamp and seating facilities for passengers at a cost of Rs 10.76 crore and Rs 5.43 crore.

Good samaritan helping accident victims can get Rs 10,000 reward

A good samaritan would get a monetary reward of Rs 10,000 for helping a road accident victim with the State government announcing a reward of Rs 5,000 in addition to the Centre's contribution, he said. He also announced that the light motor vehicle transport drivers were exempted from getting the badge required to drive like in the neighbouring Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

To avail the transport-related services without any hindrance, he said that the public would avail of 42 driving license and vehicle registration-related services online using the Aadhaar. He said that people who wanted to get a light motor vehicle license need not depend on the private driving schools as all the 91 RTOs and 54 motor vehicle inspector offices would have cars at Rs 6.25 crore.

He said that the automated testing stations would be set up in 18 RTOs, including Redhills, Tambaram, Sriperumbudur and Vellore, through a public-private partnership.