The advance booking for bus tickets for Dashain this year was opened rather late. As the transport entrepreneurs were adamant that their demands be fulfilled first, the booking of bus tickets started just one week back, however they have been claiming that more than 70 per cent of bus tickets have been booked. Every year commuters planning to leave Kathmandu Valley for Dashain celebrations have to face numerous hassles in acquiring bus tickets and the scenario has not changed this year too. And amidst all this mayhem, the government is always a mute spectator to the problems that the general public has to bear with. In this context, Sujan Dhungana of The Himalayan Times spoke to Rupnarayan Bhattarai, director general of Department of Transport Management, to know about different issues plaguing domestic transportation sector. Excerpts:

Why does the public have to face difficulties in getting bus tickets every Dashain?

There are basically two reasons behind this. The first is that the government does not have its own means of transportation. Due to this, the government can only facilitate the public in getting bus tickets from private transport entrepreneurs. The other reason is that transport entrepreneurs intentionally create havoc during Dashain. Considering the festive season to be the right time to start bargaining with the government to fulfil their interests, transport entrepreneurs often come up with different issues during Dashain. This year too, they delayed opening advance sales of bus tickets and were pressurising the government to fulfil various demands. Some of their demands included allowing the top-carriage to be affixed atop their vehicles and increasing the public transportation fare. In a bid to ensure that the people do not face problems in commuting during Dashain, we have assured transport entrepreneurs that the aforementioned demands will be fulfilled shortly. In fact, we have already started amendment process to allow transport entrepreneurs to keep top-carriage in vehicles and a separate government committee is studying the process to adjust new transportation fare. But the new public transportation fare will be implemented only after the festive season ends. Though the transport entrepreneurs bargain with the government time and again on different issues, it is a bitter fact that they do not comply with the government rules and regulations. I must say that domestic transport entrepreneurs do not comply with more than 10 per cent of the government laws. They overcharge commuters on different routes, do not maintain their vehicles properly and carry passengers beyond the capacity of their vehicles. Moreover, government inspection has often found that a number of transport entrepreneurs are operating vehicles without valid licences and route permits. Likewise, the deluxe buses have been charging passengers more than the usual fare but have failed to provide any luxurious facility. This shows that transport entrepreneurs are not doing their business in a disciplined manner. While coming to bargain with the government, transport entrepreneurs should introspect on whether they have fulfilled their responsibilities. However, the government now will not spare those transport entrepreneurs who are not complying with the government laws.

The DoTM recently started the embossed number plate system for vehicles. However, it has been embroiled in controversy for not awarding the printing contract of embossed number plates to the lowest bidder. What is your take on this?

I do not have much to comment on this issue as it was the earlier leadership of the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) that had awarded the contract to print embossed number plates to Decatur Tiger IT. However, it has to be noted that the lowest bidder does not always get the contract. As per the Public Procurement Act, the contract has to be awarded to a company that is both technically and financially sound. Moreover, a general principle is that the contract has to be awarded to the lowest bidder among the technically fit firms. As per the files maintained by DoTM, the lowest bidding company for the project was not technically feasible and did not meet the standards set by the government. Of the three other bidders that had met the technical specifications set by the government, Decatur Tiger IT was the lowest bidder for the project. Also, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority is probing the issue and will punish anyone found guilty in the contract awarding process, so I can’t speak much on the issue.  Implementation of embossed number plate system is an initiative adopted by the government to systematise transportation industry of the country and all stakeholders should coordinate to promote it.

However, a House panel recently charged the government for lack of preparedness to implement the embossed number plate system effectively. How true is it?

This is not true. DoTM has been developing infrastructure in the country to effectively implement the embossed number plate system in vehicles. We are setting up embossed number plate tracking gates in 10 different places across the country and five of them are in the Kathmandu Valley itself. Such tracking stations have already been built in Jorpati, Nagarjun and Jagati and all these 10 embossed number plate tracking gates will come into operation very soon. However, it is true that such tracking gates have to be built along other major vehicle routes of the country. In the second phase, DoTM has planned to develop vehicle tracking stations in 60 different places across the country. Such stations will be set up at all border points connecting Nepal with China and India and along major highways of the country. We will set up such vehicle tracking gates in all cities where the number of vehicles is high.

The distribution of smart licences has also been halted since long. What is the reason behind this?

The government had allocated Rs 160 million for the printing and distribution of smart licences in the last fiscal year. However, the amount was not utilised as the then leadership did not call for a global tender to print the smart cards. This has led to a scarcity of smart cards and hampered the smart licence card distribution process. However, we have recently called a tender seeking proposals from interested companies to print almost 750,000 smart cards and the proposal submitted by bidders is under evaluation. Within the next two weeks, we are also calling for a global tender for another two million smart cards. Had the earlier leadership called a tender for such cards last year, service seekers would not have to face problems this year. Similarly, the DoTM at present has only four printing machines with each having a capacity to print 300 smart licences per day. However, the demand for smart licences in the country is almost 4,000 a day. So, we should actually have at least one dozen printers to print smart licences as per the regular demand. DoTM now has called a tender to purchase four additional printers. Once we get these four printers, we will have eight printers and DoTM plans to print smart licences in two shifts a day after that. Then only will we able to cater to the demand. As soon as DoTM acquires these smart cards and printing machines, we will revamp the smart licence distribution system and make sure that service seekers get smart licences in less than a week.

Officials of Itahari-based Transport Management Office earlier were found to be involved in revenue misappropriation. How have you planned to maintain transparency in the DoTM offices in future?

It was a probe initiated by DoTM that found the involvement of officials of the Transport Management Office in Itahari in revenue embezzlement. I have formed a separate committee that looks after the daily financial aspects of all the offices under DoTM and the committee reports directly to me in case of any fault in any office. Based on the committee’s notice, we directly visit the office where the misappropriation of revenue is suspected and take action immediately. Similarly, I have recently discouraged cash transaction in all offices of DoTM and directed them to transact only through banking channel. This will help us to figure out financial irregularities if they do occur.