TDP Government’s one of the Super Six promises was the Stree Shakti scheme – Free Bus travel for women. After a year of delay, it was finally launched in 2025 through Government order G.O.MS.No.27, It announced that the scheme would be implemented on buses in only 5 out of 16 service categories. The categories excluded cover the very services that working women, college students, and daily commuters most depend on for inter-district and long-distance travel.
By August 15, 2025 fourteen months after taking power, the government claimed to have implemented the scheme “comprehensively.” But the comprehensiveness was a deception.
Where the Scheme Works — and Where It Doesn’t
According to the GO, the Stree Shakti free travel scheme currently applies only to the following services:
Applicable services:
- Palle Velugu
- Ultra Palle Velugu
- City Ordinary
- Metro Express
- Express
Not applicable — women must pay full fare:
- All non-stop services
- All inter-state services of any category
- Contract carriage services
- Chartered services
- Package tours
- Express Chanti
- Rajdhani, Prajavani, City Rider, Metro Luxury, Star Liner, Super Luxury, Indra, Metro Delux, Non-stop, APSRTC SPP Express
The E-Bus Exclusion: The Final Deception
This is where the TDP government’s strategy of gradual betrayal reaches its most brazen expression. When Chandrababu took office, he announced that APSRTC would transition to electric buses — 1,050 e-buses to begin with, scaling to 100% e-bus coverage by 2029. He presented this as a progressive, green, forward-thinking initiative. The policy is explicit: when new e-buses replace existing diesel buses on routes, the free travel entitlement disappears. Women who previously travelled free on the diesel bus serving their route will be required to pay for the e-bus that replaces it.
The TDP government must be held to a single, clear standard: free travel for women on every APSRTC service, including all e-buses, with full government reimbursement to the corporation for revenue foregone. Not until 2029 when the diesel fleet is gone and the promise has nowhere left to apply.
The women of Andhra Pradesh are watching. And they are counting every route, every exclusion, and every e-bus that replaces a free ride with a paid one.
