Hyderabad: It was a lucky day for a woman who was trying to board a packed TSRTC bus at the Lothkunta bus stop in Secunderabad Cantonment when she suddenly lost her balance and fell, on Monday, February 19.
However, she escaped unhurt.
The bus, at that moment, had just begun moving but stopped in the nick of time.
The video of the incident has gone viral on social media platforms. Fellow passengers are heard screaming while some try to help her stand.
Ever since the inception of the Mahalakshmi scheme this year, which offers free travel to women and transgender passengers, there has been a tremendous increase, nearly 31%, in woman passengers, based on a recent survey by the Helping Hand Foundation, a city-based NGO, on January 5.
The percentage of women using TSRTC buses for their daily commute surged from 52% to 81% after the launch of the scheme.
On January 30, TSRTC announced the recruitment of 3,000 employees after the number of women passengers increased post the implementation of the Mahalakshmi scheme.
On February 15, to tackle the growing number of passengers, the TSRTC decided to change the seat arrangement to from ‘front-facing seats’ on either side of the aisle to metro-like side-facing seats to increase aisle space, making room for 25 extra passengers on a bus.
The Mahalakshmi Scheme is one of the six guarantees promised by the Congress party during the Assembly elections last year.
