India, March 4 -- The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) on Tuesday began issuing smart cards to women commuters, replacing the existing pink paper tickets used to avail free bus rides. DTC said it nearly 4,000 cards across various centres on the first day of the roll-out till 5 pm.

A spot check by Hindustan Times at several DTC pink card centres found that the process of issuing the new QR code-based cards was largely smooth, with roughly 40-45 cards issued at each centre during the day. Officials added that a bigger rush is expected from Thursday after the Holi celebrations.

DTC officials said the smart card system has been introduced to streamline the free travel scheme for women and reduce reliance on paper tickets, while maintaining...