Advance ticket booking likely to open from Friday

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Sept. 23: When a large number of people planning to return home to celebrate the upcoming Dashain festival have already booked bus tickets to return home, the government has started holding discussions with relevant agencies to open booking of bus tickets for the upcoming Dashain festival.

Generally, after holding discussions with bus operators, the government used to open advance ticket bookings about one or two weeks before the Dashain holidays (Ghatasthapana).

However, this year, when Ghatasthapana is only 11 days away, the government and bus operators have not concluded booking of bus tickets yet. 

“We have bought tickets of microbus to go to Jhapa on October 2,” said Abhay Subedi of Arjundahra Jhapa, who was at a counter of Koteshwor on Saturday.

Similar were the views of Kumud Gautam of Ilam. He said he booked two tickets for Ilam, the men at the counter told him to pay the money later.

Both Abhay and Kumud are studying Bachelor in Kathmandu, and they want to go home immediately after Dashain holiday begins. 

However, Saroj Sitaula, General Secretary of the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs claimed that he was unaware that the tickets for buses were being sold for Dashain.

He said they had not made any delays in opening the advance booking of bus tickets this year, and they would decide it on Tuesday.

Instead, he said they were demanding for maintenance of roads damaged by the floods, landslides and rains this summer.

“The road conditions are bad, and we have urged the government to repair them before opening the ticket booking. We do not want to put the life of passengers at risk by operating our buses on risky roads,” Sitaula said.   

Government officials also said that discussions were underway between representatives of Department of Road, the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs, consumer activists and traffic police regarding the opening of tickets for the upcoming Dashain.

Narayan Bhattarai, coordinator of the National Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs, said that the government and the transport entrepreneurs had almost reached a conclusion to open the advance booking of ticket from September 27 (Friday).

He said that the government has called a meeting for Tuesday (September 24) to decide the date to open booking of bus tickets.

"A discussion was held with the Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport even on Saturday and plans are underway to open bus tickets from Friday. But the official decision will be taken by Tuesday’s meeting," he told The Rising Nepal.

He said that they are asking the government for the maintenance of roads before opening the advance ticket booking as many roads were damaged during the rainy season this monsoon.  

"We have demanded for the maintenance of the road before opening the ticket booking with priority in the meeting held with the government as most of the roads are damaged significantly during this rainy season," he said.

The government should fulfil our demands and only after that advance tickets for Dashain would be opened, he said.

"There is a risk along the Prithvi Highway, in Dhalkebar of East-West Highway, Araniko Highway, Nuwakot and other road sections. The roads are not blacktopped, there are big potholes. Therefore, the government should first maintain the roads and guarantee passengers’ security," he said. 

According to Bhattarai, during the meeting held with the Minister for Transport and Physical Infrastructure, the Minister assured them to study the condition of the roads and maintain them.

The government has already instructed the concerned agencies to maintain roads immediately.

Bhattarai said that advance ticket booking would be open for long and medium-distance passengers.

However, the bus fare should not go up this year.

“We are committed to providing smooth services to passengers by making arrangements of more buses, and microbuses operating day and night. We will operate an additional number of vehicles in routes which are available with us based on the pressure of passengers,” he said.

However, the bus fare should not go up this year.

He said that around 1.4 million people will leave the Kathmandu Valley during the festival.