Free Travel Facility for Girl Students (Haryana Roadways)

What is the free travel facility for girl students in Haryana?

Free Travel Facility for Girl Students is a Haryana Transport Department facility under which girl students of schools, colleges and institutions travel free in Haryana Roadways buses on a student bus pass. The sanction of the Governor of Haryana was accorded by memo number 19/1/2006-2T(II) dated 4 December 2013, and the distance covered was later widened.

By a further memo of the same number, issued in July 2017 with the concurrence of the Finance Department vide U.O. No. 1/48/2006-1FG-II/8848 dated 22 June 2017, the sanction was accorded for "free travel facility to girl students of the Schools/Colleges/Institutions in Haryana Roadways buses extending the limit from 60 KMs to 150 KMs". That is the operative position on record on the Department of State Transport website.

The intent behind the facility is straightforward. In much of Haryana, the nearest senior secondary school, ITI, polytechnic or degree college is not in the village. Bus fare over a 30 or 40 km daily round trip is a real reason families give for stopping a girl's education. Removing that fare, and then tripling the distance ceiling from 60 km to 150 km, brings colleges in neighbouring districts within reach without any household cost.

Haryana Roadways is run by the Department of State Transport, and the facility is administered by the General Managers of the roadways depots in each district.

How far and in which buses does the free pass work?

• Distance: up to 150 km, raised from the original 60 km limit in July

• Operator: Haryana Roadways buses. The sanction is specific to the state's own fleet.
• Bus type: Haryana Roadways bus passes are valid in Standard buses and Haryana Uday CNG Standard buses. Volvo and other premium services are reserved separately through the department's e-booking system and are not covered by a pass.
• Route: a pass is issued between two named stations, and the department's general instructions allow a pass from any point in Haryana to any destination within Haryana, including Delhi and Chandigarh, subject to a minimum of 10 km single side.

Who is eligible for the girl students' free bus pass?

Who can get the pass:

• Girl students enrolled in schools, colleges or institutions, as covered by the 2013 sanction and the 2017 extension.
• Students of institutions that are recognised by the State Government, or affiliated or associated with any university in the state. The State Transport Controller's standing instructions to all General Managers, originally issued on 30 September 1982 and still published on the department site, direct that the concessional pass facility be extended to students of all such schools, colleges and other institutions.
• Girl students whose journey between home and institution falls within the 150 km limit.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible:

• Boys and other students, who are covered by the separate concessional student pass rather than the free travel sanction.
• Students of institutions that are neither recognised by the State Government nor affiliated or associated with a university in the state.
• Journeys beyond 150 km, which fall outside the extended limit.
• Travel in Volvo and other premium buses, or in buses of other operators, which passes do not cover.
• Anyone other than the named student, since the pass is strictly non-transferable.

What documents are required?

The application form itself is supplied free of cost at the roadways depot office.

How to apply for the girl students' free bus pass

1. Get a bonafide student certificate from your school, college or institution, stating your name, class or course and the current academic session.
2. Collect the bus pass application form free of cost from the office of the General Manager, Haryana Roadways, and fill in your personal details, the station you travel from, the station you travel to and the period of the pass.
3. Have the form forwarded or countersigned by your institution, since student passes are issued on the strength of the institution's certification that you are enrolled there.
4. Submit the form at the office of the General Manager, Haryana Roadways in whose jurisdiction either the starting point or the destination point of the journey falls, on any working day between 10.00 AM and 3.00 PM, with a passport size photograph.
5. Collect the computerised pass, check that your photograph, the two station names and the expiry date printed on the top are correct before you leave the counter.
6. Renew before expiry. Haryana Roadways' general instructions waive the Rs 5 processing fee where renewal is done within 3 days after the expiry of the pass, so renewing promptly is cheaper than renewing late.

There is no online application route published for the girl students' free travel pass on the Department of State Transport website; the process runs through the depot office and the institution.

Rules every pass holder should know

Haryana Roadways prints its pass conditions on the reverse of every pass, and they apply to student passes as well:

• The pass is non-transferable and non-refundable.
• The pass must be produced on demand by the conductor or checking staff.
• In case of loss, a duplicate is issued on payment of a 50% penalty amount for the balance period.
• The pass must be carried in original; a photocopy is not accepted in any case.
• The pass cannot be used as identity proof for any other purpose.

For general public passes the department charges 40 single fares for one month, 110 single fares for three months and 200 single fares for six months, plus Rs 15 for the card and processing. The girl students' facility is a free travel sanction rather than a paid pass, so the fare component does not apply; confirm with your depot whether the Rs 15 card and processing charge is levied in your case, because the free travel memos do not notify a card fee.

Common reasons a student pass application is refused

• No bonafide student certificate, or a certificate from a previous academic session.
• Institution not recognised or affiliated, which the 1982 instructions make a condition of the concessional pass facility.
• Journey longer than 150 km, which falls outside the 2017 extension.
• Application filed at the wrong depot, when neither the starting nor the destination point falls in that General Manager's jurisdiction.
• Route shorter than 10 km single side, below the minimum for which a pass is issued.
• Photograph missing or unclear, which stops the computerised pass being printed.

Key dates

• 4 December 2013; memo number 19/1/2006-2T(II) sanctioning free travel bus passes for girl students.
• July 2017 — memo number 19/1/2006-2T(II) extending the limit from 60 km to 150 km, with Finance Department concurrence dated 22 June 2017.
• 30 September 1982; State Transport Controller's instruction extending the concessional student pass facility to all recognised or affiliated institutions, still published by the department.

The facility is open through the year. In practice, applications are heaviest in July and August at the start of the academic session, so applying early in the session avoids the queue.

Help and grievance redressal

• General Manager, Haryana Roadways of your district, the pass-issuing authority.
• Department of State Transport (Haryana Roadways) website hartrans.gov.in, whose Free/Concessional Travelling page publishes the underlying memos on free travel for girl students.
• Haryana public grievance portal: harsamadhan.gov.in, if a lawful pass is refused or a conductor declines to honour a valid pass.

No fee is payable to any agent for a student bus pass. The application form is free, and the pass is issued directly by the roadways depot office.

How to check your application status

The girl students' free bus pass is not processed through an online workflow, so there is no portal login, tracking number or SMS update to check. The Department of State Transport does not publish any application-tracking facility for this pass on hartrans.gov.in. What "checking status" means in practice for this facility is following up directly with the office that handles the paperwork.

• At the depot counter, the same day: in most cases the computerised pass is prepared and handed over at the same visit once the form, the bonafide certificate and the photograph are in order, so there is usually no waiting period to track in the first place.
• If the pass is not ready on the spot, ask the counter staff at the office of the General Manager, Haryana Roadways where the form was submitted for the expected date of collection, and note down the date and the name of the official who took the form.
• Follow up with the institution first if the delay is on the certification side. Since every application is routed through the school or college for a bonafide certificate or countersignature, a pass held up in processing is more often stuck at the institution's end than at the depot.
• Contact the General Manager, Haryana Roadways of the district where the form was filed if more than a few working days have passed with no word. There is no centralised helpline number published for this facility, so the concerned depot office is the point of contact, not a state-level call centre.
• Carry the acknowledgement or a copy of the submitted form, if the depot issued one, when following up in person; it establishes the date of application and speeds up tracing the file at the counter.
• For a lost or damaged pass already issued, the same office reissues a duplicate on payment of the 50% penalty for the balance period rather than through any separate tracking request.

Because the process is entirely offline and depot-based, a student who does not hear back should treat an in-person visit to the General Manager's office, rather than a phone call or web check, as the reliable way to find out where the application stands.