Mukhyamantri Gramin Bus Suvidha Yojana, Chhattisgarh

What is Mukhyamantri Gramin Bus Suvidha Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Gramin Bus Suvidha Yojana: also written as the Mukhyamantri Gramin Bus Sewa Yojana and translated officially as the Chief Minister Rural Bus Facility Scheme, is a scheme of the Transport Department, Government of Chhattisgarh, to restore bus service on rural routes that private operators had abandoned as commercially unviable.

The Chhattisgarh cabinet approved the scheme on 30 April 2025. The design recognises the real problem: on a thin rural route with few passengers and poor roads, an operator loses money on every trip, so no amount of permit availability brings a bus. The state therefore pays a per-kilometre operating subsidy on top of the fare revenue and waives the monthly motor vehicle tax, so that the route becomes viable for three years while ridership builds.

The financial support

• Rs 26 per kilometre in the first year of operation.
• Rs 24 per kilometre in the second year.
• Rs 22 per kilometre in the third year.
• Exemption from monthly motor vehicle tax for a maximum of three years from the date of issue of the first permit for the rural route.

The tapering subsidy is deliberate. It assumes that by the third year the route has enough regular passengers to survive on fares alone.

Rollout so far

• Phase one, launched on 4 October 2025 at Jagdalpur in Bastar by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, connected about 250 remote villages.
• Phase two, launched virtually from Raipur by the Chief Minister on 10 December 2025, added 24 buses on 23 rural routes across 10 districts of the Bastar and Surguja divisions, covering about 180 more villages.
• Together, roughly 430 remote villages had direct bus service by December

Who is eligible for Mukhyamantri Gramin Bus Suvidha Yojana?

An operator can apply if:

• The applicant is a local resident of Chhattisgarh. The scheme was announced with the explicit condition that permits go to residents of the state.
• The vehicle offered is a light or medium passenger transport vehicle with 18 to 42 seats.
• The applicant can meet the standard Motor Vehicles Act requirements, registration, fitness certificate, insurance, and a driver holding a public service vehicle badge.
• The applicant participates in and wins the route tender floated for the identified rural route.

Priority within eligible applicants goes to persons belonging to Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Class communities, to women, and to Naxal-affected persons, as announced by Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao when the cabinet cleared the scheme.

Who cannot apply:

• Individual villagers and passengers cannot apply for any cash benefit, subsidy or allowance under this scheme. There is no beneficiary form for a citizen. Residents benefit by riding the bus and by the fare concessions.
• Operators from outside Chhattisgarh are not eligible for these permits.
• Buses above 42 seats or below 18 seats are outside the notified capacity band and are not eligible.
• Operators offering a vehicle without valid fitness and insurance cannot be given a permit, however competitive the bid.
• Routes that are already adequately served by existing stage carriage operations are not taken up, since the scheme targets unserved and underserved rural stretches.

What fare concessions do passengers get?

When the cabinet approved the scheme on 30 April 2025, the following concessions were announced for travel on these rural buses:

• Visually impaired persons, full fare concession.
• Persons with disability in both legs: full fare concession.
• Citizens aged 80 years and above, full fare concession.
• Persons living with AIDS — full fare concession.
• Naxal-affected persons; half fare.

Carry the relevant certificate; disability certificate, age proof or the district administration's certificate: when you board, because the conductor records concession passengers for the subsidy claim.

What documents does an operator need?

How to apply for a rural route permit

1. Watch for the route tender notice. A district-level committee identifies unserved rural routes, after which the District Transport Office and the Regional Transport Office float tenders. Notices appear on the collectorate notice board, the district website and the Chhattisgarh Transport Department portal at cgtransport.gov.in.
2. Study the route document. Check the route length in kilometres, the number of daily trips required, the timings and the minimum vehicle specification, because the subsidy is paid on verified kilometres actually run.
3. Prepare the bid file with your domicile certificate, Aadhaar, PAN, vehicle registration or purchase commitment, fitness certificate, insurance, driver details and bank details, plus the caste or Naxal-affected certificate if you are claiming priority.
4. Submit the bid with the earnest money deposit before the closing date and time stated in the notice, and collect an acknowledgement.
5. Attend the bid opening and selection, where the committee applies the priority categories along with the bid conditions.
6. Take the stage carriage permit from the Regional Transport Authority after selection, and complete the tax exemption formality at the District Transport Office so the monthly vehicle tax waiver is recorded.
7. Start operations on the notified timetable and file monthly running statements; trip sheets, log book and kilometres run, with the District Transport Office to claim the per-kilometre assistance.

How to check subsidy and permit status

1. Track your permit application number with the Regional Transport Authority office of your district.
2. File the monthly running statement on time. Subsidy is released against verified kilometres, so a late or incomplete statement delays payment more often than any office does.
3. Follow up with the District Transport Officer for the sanction and release position of each month's claim, and confirm the credit in your bank account.
4. Check cgtransport.gov.in for departmental circulars revising rates, route lists and claim formats.

Why claims and permits run into trouble

• Kilometres claimed do not match the log book or GPS record. Keep trip sheets signed daily and consistent with the vehicle tracking record.
• Trips skipped on low-passenger days. The subsidy is designed precisely so that you run on thin days. Skipped trips are deducted and repeated skipping can cost the permit.
• Fitness or insurance lapsed. A day of running with an expired fitness certificate invalidates that period's claim and attracts a penalty.
• Concession passengers not recorded. Free and half-fare passengers must be recorded on the way bill for the accounts to reconcile.
• Vehicle outside the 18 to 42 seat band. Substituting a larger bus without approval breaches the permit condition.
• Domicile or priority certificate not attached. Bids are commonly rejected at the technical stage for this alone.

Where to raise a grievance

• District Transport Officer of your district. The first point for permits, route conditions, monthly claims and subsidy release.
• Regional Transport Authority for permit grant, variation and renewal disputes.
• Transport Commissioner, Government of Chhattisgarh, whose office and circulars are reachable through cgtransport.gov.in.
• District Collector, for a written complaint about a bus that has stopped running on a sanctioned rural route, which is the complaint villagers most often need to make.

Passengers pay only the notified fare. No operator may charge above the approved fare table, and eligible concession passengers must be carried free or at half fare as notified.