After the introduction of integrated public transport system from September 5 onwards, the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) has received as many as 1,900 requests of bus passes including 1,350 requests received from the students of the tricity.

After the introduction of integrated transport facility, the students studying in any recognised institute in tricity region can avail facility of passes. The student pass is issued at Rs300 quarterly against the Rs500 per month for general public.   

For students, the quarterly, biannual and annual student bus passes cost Rs300, Rs600 and Rs1,200 respectively. Earlier, the monthly pass cost was Rs60. For AC buses, the students have to shell out Rs500 per month for bus pass.

The CTU has recently introduced integrated transport services in tricity region ie Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Mansa Devi, Mullanpur, Zirakpur and Saketri for which bus passes to the general public and other categories on “Anytime Anywhere basis” are issued. E-Sampark Centres have been authorized to issue quarterly and half-yearly bus passes in the form of a plastic card. A person can travel on any local route, any number of times without any restriction.

A spokesperson of the UT Administration said that this policy has been introduced about a week back and the response thereto has been very encouraging. So far, requests for 1,900 bus passes have been received, including 1,350 requests received from the students alone of the tricity.

“Special concessional fares have been put in force not only for students of the recognised institutes/colleges of Chandigarh but for the whole region of tri-city for Government employees. The facility is available irrespective of belonging to any state government /Corporation of Punjab, Haryana or UT.  This facility has also been extended to those employees working on contractual or outsourced basis with the UT or state governments, added the spokesperson.

Notably, it was recently decided that the tri-city region need to have an integrated public transport system and the states of Haryana and Punjab were requested to exempt passenger tax on CTU buses running in tri-city on reciprocal basis, or at least charge it in lump sum amount. After the introduction of the new integrated transport system, anyone can get the general pass irrespective of his/her being a resident of tri-city.