Bengaluru: Though Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) had made ambitious plans to home deliver smart card student passes, thousands are yet to receive it. To avail this facility the students had to fill an online form, but for many students the process had hit technical snags.
But the BMTC has now made the use of these cards compulsory. As a temporary measure BMTC was allowing students to travel with previous year’s passes, fee receipts, identity card of their institution or the receipt which they have filled the online application.
A senior BMTC official told Deccan Chronicle, “All these days there was some technical problem for some educational institutions to fill online application to get the passes. Now all have received their passes and hence it will be mandatory from Friday.”
He pointed out that when the delivery of passes started this year, the corporation was issuing around 6,000 passes every day, but now the numbers have come down to 500. “The counters in Majestic are also generally empty nowadays. This means most of students have received passes for this academic year. So we are making it mandate for them to carry the same. Those who have still not received passes should visit our counters or approach through their intuitions,” he added.
This year BMTC had received over 3 lakh applications, but around 70,000 applications could not be processed. The officials claimed this was because students had not completed all the requisites, including details (college email ID, phone numbers) or did not upload photos.
These students have to now queue up at 15 counters set up in Majestic bus stand. Now the BMTC officials claim that the issue has been solved.
Last year, BMTC issued had issued 3.7 lakh concessional passes. The officials claim the numbers would drop this year as smart cards will eliminate fake passes.
