Kathmandu, September 7

The Department of Transport Management has directed all district transport management committees to fix temporary, earthen or gravelled roads in their responsibility areas and make it mandatory for transport entrepreneurs plying their vehicles on such roads to obtain route permit.

Of the total 12,493 km of roads in Nepal, 51 per cent are paved while 36 per cent are earthen and 13 per cent gravelled.

According to DoTM, most of the entrepreneurs have not obtained route permits to operate vehicles on rural roads due to which the government is facing a tough time addressing the issue of insurance following road accidents.

“Thus, the DoTM directed district transport management committees to prepare an inventory of transport services operating on rural roads and fix temporary roads besides making it mandatory to obtain route permits,” read a notice issued by the department.

Insurance claim is denied to any vehicle that meets with an accident on a road stretch for which it has not acquired permit. The district transport management committee is headed by the concerned chief district officer.

The DoTM has also directed the committees to act on the Motor Vehicle and Transport Management Act to make transport service systematic and curb increasing road accidents.

Earlier, it had written to the committees and all concerned authorities to strictly implement the decisions regarding road safety.

A joint meeting of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and transport, traffic police, transport entrepreneurs and other stakeholders had taken various decisions in the wake of traffic fatalities in Kavre, Baitadi and Okhaldhunga.

If public vehicles are found plying routes for which they do not have permit, the driving license of the driver and registration of the vehicle could be suspended for six months.

At least 700 people have been killed in road accidents so far this fiscal, according to Nepal Police.