– 01-04-2026, Pink card test conducted on various DTC buses across Delhi.– 01-04-2026, Pink card test conducted on various DTC buses across Delhi.New Delhi: Days after TOI reported a 60-minute lock-in period on the use of Delhi govt’s free bus scheme via the Saheli card, a follow-up field check on Wednesday found that the restriction was no longer in place, but technical glitches in the card reading system were a challenge.TOI had reported on March 15, after conducting multiple bus rides and testing the card across routes, that the free-ride benefit could not be availed of within an hour of one swipe. This effectively locked the card for 60 minutes and stopped passengers from taking connecting buses.Delhi govt then said the restriction applied only to the same buses and that any technical issues would be reviewed as the system was still being rolled out.Chief minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday said there was no hourly cap on pink cards and women and transgender commuters could take multiple rides without waiting.On Wednesday, TOI retried the card, and took multiple rides, boarding six buses at timed intervals to verify the claim.The first attempt, at 11.21 am on a bus from Qutub Minar metro station towards Badarpur (route 718), ran into a familiar problem — the card machine got hung after the swipe, forcing the conductor to issue a paper ticket.A second bus at 11.35 am (route 522B) was the first successful swipe, though not without delay. “The machine is not reading this card,” the conductor initially said, attempting to issue a paper ticket, before the card’s details were processed after a brief wait.To test shorter intervals, TOI took another bus (route 427) around 11.45 am, but the bus did not have a functional card reading machine. After deboarding, the next successful swipe happened at 11.50 am on a bus on the same 427 route, marking a gap of about 15 minutes from the previous valid swipe, which was at 11.35 am on route 522B. The swipe did not face any restrictions.Rides at 12.22 pm and and 1.22 pm showed no usage cap or block.The lock-in restriction appears to have been removed, but operational challenges persist. Card reading machines glitch frequently, forcing conductors to fall back on paper tickets. Conductors said the ticket devices often freeze for minutes together after a single swipe.Conversations during the rides indicate that confusion around the scheme remains. Several women passengers said they had earlier faced problems while changing buses due to the lock period. “There used to be a problem earlier, but now it has probably been removed,” a woman commuter said.
