Patna (ABN) The movement of 100 existing Pink Buses in Bihar will be further strengthened to promote women's safety and dignified travel. The state government is soon going to recruit 250 women drivers and 250 women conductors for Pink Buses. This information was given by Transport Minister and President of Bihar Hockey Association, Sharwan Kumar. He was addressing a function at the Transport Complex to unveil the trophy and mascot 'Golo Goria' of the monthly Hockey Gold Cup 2026. The minister said that the first Mahamana Hockey Gold Cup will be held from January 19 to 21 at the Rajgir International Sports Ground. The inaugural ceremony will be attended by several dignitaries, including Olympians Bhurt Chhetri, Ashok Dhyanchand, and Shrish Singh. A total of 16 teams will participate in the competition, including talented players from states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh. The winning team will receive a cash prize of ₹1 lakh, the runner-up will get ₹75,000, and the team finishing third will get ₹50,000. The main objective of the event is to create interest in sports among children in the state and provide them with opportunities to move forward at the national and international levels. Minister Sharwan Kumar said that Bihar has become the first state in the country where construction work is underway on 6,800 sports grounds at the panchayat level. More than 5,000 of these grounds have been completed. The objective is to nurture hidden talents in rural areas and include Bihar in the top 5 states with the best sports performance. The Mahamana Hockey Gold Cup competition is being organized by the Bihar State Sports Authority, Hockey Association, Kreeda Bharti, and Mahamana Malviya Mission. Players are being given rigorous training by Olympic coaches. The minister said that currently, 100 Pink Buses are running in eight districts of the state, providing safe and dignified travel to women. On Republic Day, six mahadalit women drivers will drive Pink Buses at Gandhi Maidan in a tableau of the Transport Department. Furthermore, the license to drive Pink Buses will soon be issued to women drivers who have completed training at the IDTR in Aurangabad. Transport Minister Sharwan Kumar said that sleeper buses are not operating according to standards, and many buses are being converted into sleeper buses with seater bus permits. All such cases will be investigated, and action will be taken to cancel permits. He also stated that at a meeting of transport ministers in Delhi, it was decided that the central government will now provide assistance of up to ₹1.5 lakh for the treatment of road accident victims. Additionally, pedestrians who take accident victims to the hospital will now be rewarded with ₹25,000. Prioritizing road safety in the state, a target of zero deaths has been set in six districts: Patna, Muzaffarpur, Saran, Motihari, Gaya, and Nalanda. Necessary measures, including road improvements, are being taken to achieve this goal. Furthermore, over 2,000 ambulances are being tagged with the emergency number 102 so that accident victims can receive immediate assistance. Soon, 149 new inter-state buses will be introduced to facilitate travel from Bihar to states like Jharkhand, Delhi, and West Bengal.