Kathmandu, September 27

Transport entrepreneurs have said that a majority of the tickets that were available for this Dashain have already been booked till today.

However, they also said a few more buses would be added to different routes targeting the travellers who have not yet made advance bookings.

“Most of the tickets meant for Dashain this year have been booked,” Dolnath Khanal, president of the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs Association (FNNTEA) told The Himalayan Times, adding that meetings are underway among different transport associations to add more buses on those routes where the number of travellers is comparatively higher.

According to Khanal, FNNTEA is currently analysing the need of additional tickets for different routes.

Khanal also said that talks are underway with the government to allow transporters to carry a few more passengers than the available number of seats in buses on some routes so that every traveller can secure a ticket.

The advance booking for bus tickets opened last Friday. The fact that all the bus tickets have already been booked within just four days is sure to cause panic among travellers who have not made bookings yet. Similarly, reported incidents of the involvement of transport entrepreneurs in distributing tickets to near and dear ones has proved that the ticket distribution was not fair.

“One can see hundreds of people returning empty-handed without tickets from Gongabu Bus Park. Neither the transport entrepreneurs nor the government act responsibly when it deals with issues related to consumers,” said Madhav Timalsina, president of Consumers’ Right Investigation Forum.

As per him, lack of proper information with the government and transport entrepreneurs about the number of people leaving Kathmandu Valley for Dashain and the required number of tickets and buses is the major problem.  “Transporters should immediately add buses on different routes. Similarly, government should intervene in the ticket distribution system across stations to control anomalies.”