Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today inaugurated the free bicycle scheme for 11th standard students.

As many as 5.45 lakh cycles will be distributed to students during this academic year.

He launched the scheme from the Secretariat. In a bid to encourage girl students to pursue education, former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had launched the free bicycle scheme for the students of SC/ST category in higher secondary in 2001-02.  Subsequently, the scheme was extended to all categories in government and government-aided schools.