New Bus Park to have state-of-the-art facilities

Kathmandu, March 8

If all goes well, the proposed upgradation of Gongabu-based New Bus Park to international standards will soon reduce traffic congestion along the Ring Road.

The capital city boasts of only three designated bus parks New Bus Park, Old Bus Park, and the Bagbazaar bus park. The Old Bus Park and Bagbazaar bus park are used as intra-city terminals.

New Bus Park currently has the parking capacity of around 450 buses although more than 1,400 buses operate on long and short routes to and from the capital.

As the bus parks in Kathmandu have limited space, transport entrepreneurs have been using greenbelt areas of Ring Road to park their vehicles.

The office of Kathmandu Metropolitan City had reached an agreement with Lhotse Multipurpose Pvt Ltd on August 10, 2015 to upgrade the New Bus Park to international standards within four years.

Blueprint for the same has already been finalised. Lhotse Multipurpose has been operating the bus park since 2000 under public-private partnership agreement with the KMC.

As per the agreement, the company will hand over the bus park to the metropolis after 45 years of operation and pay Rs 9.8 million per annum during the contract period.

KMC chief Rudra Singh Tamang said modernisation of the central bus park will make the capital city safer.

The upgraded bus park premises will house commercial complex, hotels, restaurants, state-of-the-art facilities like lockers and washrooms for passengers as well as a garden.

After completion of the upgradation works, the bus park will have parking space for 800 buses against the current capacity of around 450.

Currently, Lhotse Multipurpose has been paying around Rs 8.1 million in revenue to KMC annually.