Around 20% of students in the city have yet to be issued bus passes or smart cards that subsidise their commute to and from college, according to a press release from the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). So far, around 1.30 lakh students have been issued passes at counters in Majestic and Shantinagar. Officials hope to clear the backlog and are issuing 4,000-odd bus passes to students every day.
Earlier, officials estimated that 80,000 student applications had not been processed, but now it turns out that their estimation was wrong.
The initiative of the BMTC to issue passes online for the first time turned out to be a debacle.
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Last month, thousands of students thronged the counters in Majestic to collect their passes after their online applications had not been processed. The BMTC was forced to allow students to avail of the subsidy without bus passes till October 31, and said that they could show their college identity card and fee receipt instead.
Chief Traffic Manager (operations) K.R. Vishwanath said, “It is very difficult to say how many students have not availed passes yet. Many students have applied twice, thrice and some even more than five times. We have already issued 1.30 lakh passes at the counters, and the remaining smart cards will be issued in the coming days. Overall, we have issued more than 3 lakh bus passes, which include passes delivered at the address of students who had applied online.”
Students who have not received passes should receive them before October 31.
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In a press release issued on Tuesday, the corporation said students can book online appointments to visit the counters at Majestic and Shantinagar bus stands. “The number of students visiting the counters has depleted over the days,” says the release.