City bus service faces loss in Dipayal

By Our Correspondent,Silgadhi (Doti), Oct. 3: The city bus service brought into operation by Dipayal Silgadhi Municipality in Doti district has incurred a loss of Rs. 5.3 million in the last three years. 

Information Officer for the Municipality Office Bishnu Raj Joshi said that due to heavy operating costs and other expenditures, the bus service faced a loss. 

Joshi said that in the last three fiscal years, the municipality bus earned just Rs. 7.79 million while the operation cost reached  Rs. 13 million during the same period. 

According to Joshi, it costs Rs. 6.9 million to buy fuel for the buses, they spend Rs. 3.8 million to pay the employees and Rs. 2.2 million for their maintenance.

The municipality purchased two municipal buses having 26 seats each at a cost of Rs. 5.19 million on March 26, 2018.  It added one more bus in 2019 to use in an emergency. The third bus having 32 seats was bought at Rs. 3.59 million. 

The municipality had even halted the service for a month due to management problems. 

At present, the municipality has begun a process to rent them out.

The locals, however, said that they did not believe that the city bus service was running at a loss. 

"I am surprised how the city bus can go in loss when it used to be filled with passengers all the time," said Surendra Saud of Dipayal Silgadhi-4. 

There should be an investigation as to how the city bus faced the loss while the private buses never went into loss. 

Locals have alleged that the city bus suffered the loss due to the irregularities.