Kathmandu, September 22

Advance bus ticket booking for the festive season opened today for passengers going out of the Valley. The transportation companies opened the booking of bus tickets for long-route destinations from today on the initiative of the Department of Transport Management (DoTM).

However, for short-route destinations the advance booking will open only after a few days, according to the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE). During this festive season around three million people who have been living in Kathmandu for their studies or work are expected to travel home.

Passengers can book their tickets from bus stations located in Kalanki, Balkhu, New Buspark, Old Buspark, Koteshwor, Tilganga, Chabahil, Swoyambhu, Sundhara, Nagdhunga, Jagati and Lagankhel. Although the advance booking for bus tickets has been opened the Traffic Police will operate passenger help desks only from September 27.

If passengers need any help regarding ticket bookings or if any transportation company tries to charge more than the normal fare from passengers, they can seek support from such help desks.

DoTM has also published the ticket rates for around 500 routes across the country. Transport entrepreneurs had earlier been urging the government to raise the price of tickets based on the price of fuel and non-fuel items like vehicle cost, price of spare parts, labour cost, price of tyres and lubricants before the festive season begins. However, there has been no hike in ticket price as per an agreement signed

between DoTM and the transport entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, Dolnath Khanal, president of FNNTE, said that business this year has not been as exciting as in the previous years. “Every year transportation entrepreneurs used to add extra vehicles for the festive season considering the increasing passenger movement,” he said. “However, this year we have not been able to add more buses even though passenger movement will increase.”