A national survey has handed Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy a data-backed vindication: the state's flagship free bus travel scheme for women, Mahalakshmi, is registering a measurable surge in ridership that the Centre's own statisticians have captured. On Monday, 26 October 2026, Revanth Reddy cited findings from the National Statistics Office (NSO)'s all-India Time Use Survey to declare the scheme a 'benchmark for the entire country.'

37 lakh daily riders — and a scheme born in 48 hours

The numbers the Chief Minister invoked are striking. According to Revanth Reddy's post, up to 37 lakh women are boarding TGSRTC buses every single day — travelling to schools, colleges and workplaces under the free-ride guarantee. What makes that figure more pointed is the timeline: the scheme was launched within 48 hours of the Congress government taking office in December 2023, making it one of the fastest welfare scheme activations in recent state politics anywhere in India.

The Chief Minister framed the scheme in explicitly social terms: 'Telangana Mahalakshmi scheme is not just a bus. It is about dignity, freedom and autonomy of women.' That framing — mobility as empowerment, not mere transit — is central to how the government has positioned the programme since day one.

NSO's Time Use Survey as political and policy evidence

The citation of the NSO Time Use Survey is significant. The Time Use Survey, conducted by the Central government's statistical arm, tracks how Indians — broken down by gender, age and state — spend their hours across work, caregiving, travel and leisure. A visible jump in Telangana women's public transport usage in that dataset would constitute independent, nationally comparable evidence of behavioural change driven by the scheme, going beyond state-level ridership counts.

The survey's findings, as quoted by Revanth Reddy, position Telangana ahead of other states in translating a welfare promise into measurable, documented mobility. The full state-wise disaggregated data from the latest NSO survey round is yet to be formally released for public scrutiny.

Where Mahalakshmi sits in India's free-bus landscape

Telangana is not alone in this space. Karnataka's Shakti scheme, launched in 2023, and Delhi's free bus travel for women, running since 2020, laid the immediate precedents. What distinguishes Mahalakshmi's current moment is the invocation of central government survey data — rather than just state ridership logs — as proof of impact, a move that implicitly benchmarks Telangana against those other schemes on a nationally consistent metric.

Revanth Reddy also used the post to publicly congratulate Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, crediting his 'capable leadership' for the scheme's implementation, and extended appreciation to every TGSRTC employee who keeps the network running. The acknowledgement of frontline workers alongside a senior minister is a calculated public signal about how the government wants the scheme's success story told.

The political weight of a welfare milestone

For the Telangana Congress government, Mahalakshmi is one of the 'six guarantees' that anchored its 2023 assembly election campaign. Demonstrating that the promises are not just launched but are generating measurable social outcomes — backed by NSO data — is essential political currency ahead of future electoral cycles. The scheme's fast launch, sustained ridership figures and now a national survey citation together form a narrative the party is clearly invested in amplifying.

The question the full NSO data will eventually answer: whether Telangana's numbers genuinely outpace comparable states — or whether the momentum of other schemes is equally robust.