Sources said that the plan was mooted following complaints of women passengers who are allowed to travel free of cost in such buses on identifying the ordinary service bus or whiteboard bus.

To avoid confusion on the bus service type, MTC pasted a sticker on the windshield denoting ordinary fare buses. “The old buses have white colour route board for ordinary service, and it could be easily identified. In the digital board bus, it’s difficult to correctly identify the bus service. If we wrongly boarded an express or deluxe bus, it’d lead to an unnecessary argument with the conductor,” said K Lakshmi, a resident of Tondiarpet. “If the ordinary service buses are painted in a unique colour, it’d help.”

DMK government last year announced free travel for women, transgenders and disabled persons in the ordinary service city and town buses. In the past year, women have travelled 131 crore times for free on city buses across the state.

The percentage of women taking bus rides on city buses has increased from 40% to 62% after the free ride announcement. On average, 37 lakh women travel on city buses.