A proposal for a women-only bus line was presented at the Yangon Regional government, said U Hla Aung, chairman of MaHtaTha, the regulatory body for Yangon Bus line.
To propose the women-only bus, Regional Parliament Member Dr Nyo Nyo Thin and representatives from bus line No.31 attended the meeting.
“MaHtaTha welcomes this meeting. We will cooperate as much as we can to implement this. We already submitted the proposal to Regional Government. We can run the bus line once we get the green light,” said U Hla Aung.
According to the proposal from bus line 31, the bus will run between Bayli bus station and Sanpya Cinema in Yangon – the trip onward to Sanpya Cinema will start at 7am while the return trip from Sanpya Cinema will start at 4pm.
The women-only bus line was introduced six months ago by Parami bus line but was suspended after the owner saw no profit from the route.
Later Dr Nyo Nyo Thin proposed to run a women-only bus line at the Regional Parliament but the Regional Prime Minister rejected the proposal saying he “will not allow the dignity of men to be attacked.”
Currently, 353 bus lines are running in the city with a total of 6,500 buses for 2.3 million daily passengers, according to the data from Ma HtaTha. A private bus line also hired women assistants recently.
The Yangon transportation minister already approved Dr Nyo Nyo Thin’s proposal of women-only bus lines at the Regional Parliament and the proposal by MaHtaTha was to set the regulations and bus prices, the supervisory body said.
