Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan announced that free travel for all women in KSRTC "ordinary" class buses will be implemented from June 15. He said the scheme would initially be rolled out for ordinary services and would benefit all women and transgender persons, irrespective of their income or age. The programme, announced as part of the government's Indira Guarantee initiative, will be known as Priyadarshini.
The chief minister said the scheme would impose an additional financial burden of around ₹75 crore a month. The government currently provides around ₹1,500 crore annually to KSRTC and will allocate an additional ₹800 crore to fund the free travel scheme.
According to data tabled by the Kerala government in October 2024, KSRTC operates 5,089 buses in the state, while KSRTC Swift operates 434 buses. Of the 5,089 KSRTC buses, 3,239 are "ordinary" class buses.
However, the latest Economic Review of the state shows that 60.3 per cent of the buses owned by the corporation are more than 10 years old.
Notably, there are significant differences among districts in the availability of KSRTC buses. According to data available up to March 2025, Thiruvananthapuram had 920 buses operating 1,186 services. Meanwhile, Kasaragod had just 151 buses with 136 schedules, while Malappuram had only 154 buses with 130 schedules. Referring to the issue, Chief Minister Satheesan said the government would study and address the shortage of ordinary bus services in the Malabar region.
Notably, the Kerala government is presenting the current announcement of free travel on ordinary buses as the first stage of the scheme. Satheesan said the government had asked KSRTC to improve its revenue over the next six months. The government's plans for subsequent phases of the scheme—extending the benefit to all classes of buses—will also depend on how much KSRTC improves its revenue.
The gross revenue earnings of KSRTC increased from ₹2,347.94 crore in 2023-24 to ₹2,512.20 crore in 2024-25, indicating that the corporation could improve its collections. Gross expenditure in 2024-25 stood at ₹2,756.20 crore, compared with ₹2,650.35 crore in 2023-24, while the operating loss declined to ₹244.02 crore from ₹302.41 crore during the same period.
Currently, the state government provides ₹125 crore every month to KSRTC towards salaries and pensions. Recently, Transport Minister C.P. John acknowledged that the scheme could not be funded through KSRTC's existing revenue stream. However, he also said that those working in KSRTC need not be concerned about the scheme.
Notably, questions have been raised over whether the government misled the public by limiting free travel to KSRTC ordinary buses, even though the UDF's poll promise was to provide free travel for women on all KSRTC services. However, the chief minister maintained that the initiative was unprecedented in the state's history and argued that describing it as a deception was unfair. He also reiterated that the current rollout represents only the first phase of the poll promise.
