Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that 1,400 new electric buses will be added to the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation by April next year.
In the first phase, he flagged off 100 non-AC electric buses of the BMTC at Vidhana Soudha here.
"So far, Karnataka women have undertaken 120 crore rides in state transport buses for free since the launch of the Shakti scheme. A total of 40 lakh people travel on BMTC every day. In this, women of all castes, all religions and all walks of life are travelling for free," he said.
The new electric buses have been added to promote public transport services and also curb increasing vehicular pollution in the city, he added.
Siddaramaiah accused the BJP of criticising its free bus travel service for women and questioned why it did not implement this welfare scheme when it was in power. He also explained the effective results of this scheme.
"Due to our guarantees, the purchasing power of people and the economic activity of the state is also increasing. These schemes save a lot of money for labourers, farmers and women. They use that money for other needs of their family. Thus, the economic power of millions of families is also increasing," the chief minister said.
"About 4.30 crore people of the state are directly benefiting from the government guarantee schemes. By that, the poor and working classes are being brought into the mainstream of economic progress," he said.
Through economic empowerment, financial independence has been achieved for all women, poor, working class and middle class families in the state, he said.
"The Congress government had come to power to achieve this. The previous BJP regime did nothing to empower people. Instead, they are criticising," he added.
Meanwhile, the BMTC in a statement said that Advance Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is being implemented in 10 buses to create a safe transport system for the passengers and more awareness for the drivers.
"In order to effectively control traffic violation and accident cases caused by drivers, 3,000 drivers are being trained in traffic command and control centre from December with the cooperation of the police department for safe driving and strict adherence to traffic rules," it stated.
