The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : More students take free ride to school

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

More students take free ride to school

Sandhya Soman

Outside agencies will be involved in issue of bus passes, say officials The MTC will issue passes to 2.4 lakh students by mid-June

CHENNAI: Students from Class V to XII make good use of the concession offered by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation.

The Pallavan Transport Consultancy conducted a survey among 10 per cent of the student population, which was issued free pass beginning last academic year. The report, `Study of utility of student concession passes issued by Metropolitan Transport Corporation," submitted to the Government recently, showed that while free pass was not fully utilised by elementary class students, older students used it even on Sundays.

Last year, the Corporation issued passes to school and college students, including those of private educational institutes, after the State Government revoked its 2003 order limiting the concession to government and government-aided schools and colleges. In 2003, the MTC issued only 1.3 lakh passes. While students from Class I to Class XII could travel free in buses to school and back, college students were offered 50 per cent concession. Moreover, free bus passes were made valid on all holidays. This could be a reason for the increase in patronage by school students.

Meanwhile, MTC is going ahead with its yearly exercise of issuing student passes. "We are in touch with school authorities so they could send in the details of students. We will start issuing the passes to nearly 2.4 lakh students by mid-June. The process should be complete in two months," said a senior MTC official.

While outside agencies would be roped in to carry out the online issuance of free bus passes, college students could collect their monthly season tickets from counters by producing their identity cards, the official said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu