DTC takes steps to have more women drivers

New Delhi: Keen on roping in women drivers for its fleet, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has decided to provide training and help them in getting heavy motor vehicle licence.

DTC has also decided to give some relaxation to women applicants in hiring procedure, including in terms of experience.

V Saritha, who is the first women driver to join DTC and is currently undergoing training, will soon be ferrying passengers in the city.

According to DTC, it wants to recruit more women drivers in the corporation, so it has decided to first train them to drive these vehicles for six months and thereafter, the organisation will help them get heavy motor vehicle licence.

Rules state that a driver must have a licence to drive a heavy motor vehicle (HMV) and have three years experience driving a bus. However, these women now need a commercial licence for light motor vehicles (LMV) only.

"Our aim is only to hire more women drivers. We have decided to give some relaxation to them. For instance, a women applicant having just a commercial light motor vehicle licence will be trained to drive heavy motor vehicles like buses for six months," DTC's CMD Debashree Mukherjee said.

She also said that after completion of a six-month training programme, DTC will help these women drivers get heavy motor vehicle license from transport department.

The corporation has also written to two big bus manufacturers, which supply buses to DTC, to design the driver's seat in such a manner that women drivers having average height of 5.3 ft don't face any problem.

"We recently wrote a letter to both manufacturers to design the driver's seat in such a manner henceforth that women drivers feel comfortable while driving buses," Mukherjee also said.

As per hiring procedure, a woman applicant should have a height of 5.3 ft to drive its buses.

Sources, however, said that DTC is considering to reduce height criterion for women applicants so that most women come forward to drive buses.

In the past, Saritha, who belongs to Telangana, used to drive an autorickshaw in Hyderabad. She also drove a school bus.