KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 9
Official holidays for Nepal's greatest festival Dashain ended today. With this, life inside Kathmandu valley has gradually started to normalise.
People's movement inside major cities of Kathmandu valley appears to have increased in comparison to the last few days which were the prime days of the festival.
The number of people leaving valley for their villages to celebrate Dashain festival was double this year than the previous years when people's movements were limited due to the COVID pandemic.
Valley Traffic Police estimates that more than 1.8 million people left the valley in more than 80,000 public vehicles and 35,000 private vehicles that exited the valley. Superintendent of Police Avadesh Bista Chhetri of Kathmandu Valley Police Office said that slightly less than half the number of people who went outside the valley had entered the valley in the past few days.
"The inflow of the majority of people, however, will resume in the next two days as most people who entered valley in the past few days are government employees and job holders," Chhetri said. He further said that a large number of students would return to the valley only after the completion of Tihar, another great festival of Nepalis that is scheduled in the next fifteen days. Many students, job seekers, workers in the informal sector, women, and children are expected to remain in the villages for a few more days.
Meanwhile, around 5,000 vehicles and an estimated 20,000 people left the valley today. "Although traffic inside the major city junctures has not noticeably increased as of today it is likely to increase significantly in the next two days," said Chhetri.
Life usually return to complete normalcy in the valley after Kojagrat Purnima (the full moon day), today which marks the end of Dashain festival. Authorities have said that more people are likely to return to Kathmandu valley after Tihar, which is regarded as another big festival of Nepalis.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 10, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
