Advance bus ticket booking for Dashain from Monday

By Laxman Kafle,Kathmandu, Oct. 7: Transport entrepreneurs have decided to open the advance ticket booking of buses and other vehicles for the upcoming Dashain festival from coming Monday.

A joint meeting of representatives of the concerned agencies, including the Ministry of Physical Infrasturucture and Transport, Department of Transport Management, Department of Roads, transport entrepreneurs and traffic police held at the ministry on Friday decided to open the advance ticket booking from October 9, said Ishwori Dutta Paneru, Information Officer of the Department of Transport Management.

He informed that the meeting decided to open the advance booking from Monday after completing all management works.

As hundreds of thousands of people leave Kathmandu at once, the crowd of passengers willing to return to their hometowns will increase to an unmanageable level before Dashain, so there has been a practice of opening advance booking of tickets for Dashain for decades.

Normally, by holding discussions with the government representatives, the bus operators, as instructed by the government, announce opening of the advance ticket bookings about one or two weeks before the Dashain holiday (Ghatasthapana) begins.

Narayan Bhattarai, coordinator of the National Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs, said that they decided to open advance tickets from Monday with the government commitment to fix the potholes along the roads.

He said that the businessmen will manage the buses and open tickets targeting the festival.

Earlier, the transporter entrepreneurs had been asking the government for the maintenance of roads before opening the advance ticket booking.

Bhattarai said that the transport entrepreneurs would sell the tickets at the existing fare rate.

He said that the National Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs is ready to operate buses across the country with the responsibility of taking the passengers to their destinations safely.

He said that they would manage sufficient vehicles considering the flow of passengers to provide effective services to the passengers.  

In the meeting, the government and the transport entrepreneurs also signed a 17-point agreement to address the demands of entrepreneurs related to transport management, he said.

“ Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala has also assured us to address our demands, including fare adjustment after the festival. So, we have decided to open advance tickets considering the flow of people to go to their home districts to celebrate the festival,” he said.