All-women staff, panic buttons: Delhi govt plans to expand ladies special bus service

2 min readJul 11, 2026 08:33 PM IST

The government is planning to expand this service to 20-25 busy routes like Central Delhi and ITO and areas where prominent colleges and offices are located. (File Photo)

All-women staff, marshalls, CCTV cameras, and panic buttons: these are expected to be among the key highlights as the Delhi government plans to expand its ladies special service by adding around 50 buses with an aim to make public transport safer for women in the Capital, officials said on Saturday.

At present, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) runs only a few such buses on two routes, according to officials.

“This ladies special bus service was started when Congress was in power… later, these were run on 1-2 routes on special request. But DTC is now planning to implement the scheme in a structured way by adding more buses and more features for increasing safety and security for women passengers,” said a senior DTC official.

The government is planning to expand this service to 20-25 busy routes like Central Delhi and ITO and areas where prominent colleges and offices are located. These buses will also be deployed on routes that do not have extensive Metro connectivity.

“On such routes, women and college-going students will get to have better last mile connectivity with safety measures in place,” said a government official, adding that these buses will run from 5 am to 11-12 pm.

“The buses will be procured under the PM E-DRIVE Scheme, which aims to accelerate EV adoption across the country,” said the official. Initially, 25 of these buses will be deployed in Outer Delhi and 25 as University Specials, the official added.

As the name suggests, officials said, men cannot travel in the buses being run especially for women. Mothers with children are allowed to use the service, they added.

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The government is also studying the usage of Saheli Pink Smart Cards, which allow free travel for women, to determine corridors where demand for women-only services is high, underlined officials.

The Delhi government aims to build a modern fleet of around 14,000 buses by 2028-29. Last week, the city added 300 electric buses to its fleet, taking the EV fleet to 4,845 electric buses.