New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS): The Delhi government on Tuesday appointed the first-ever batch of women DTC bus drivers.

Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot handed over the letters of appointment to 11 women drivers joining the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) as bus drivers.

The women who will now start their career as bus drivers have been deployed at various DTC depots.

"I want to thank all women today being handed over the letters of appointment today, for their courage to take up bus driving as career choice and becoming a role model for society. I am very hopeful that they will inspire more women to become bus drivers with Delhi's transportation fleet," Gahlot said on the occasion.

The women, after complete training, will be equipped to drive DTC buses. A total of 81 women, in two batches, have already completed this training and 38 have earned their HMV licences. Ten of these women are currently undergoing training at the DTC Training Centre, Nandnagari for induction as bus drivers and 31 more have applied to undertake training there.

In February, the Delhi government had relaxed the norms and eligibility criteria to recruit women as drivers for DTC. It reduced minimum height criteria from 159 cm to 153 cm and experience criteria for induction as bus drivers for women to one month.

In April, the Transport Minister had kicked off 'Mission Parivartan', an initiative to train women to obtain their Heavy Motor Vehicle (HMV) licences at Society for Driving Training Institute, Burari. The initiative is being implemented as a joint venture between the Delhi government and Ashok Leyland Ltd to facilitate end to end training to 180 women candidates for obtaining driving licence of HMV category.

The Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd (DIMTS) under its CSR support has signed an MoU with the Institute to implement this programme.