Traffic management a daunting challenge

Dhangadi, May 11

With a number of banks and financial institutions recently booming in Dhangadi bazaar, the business hub of Kailali, management of traffic in the bazaar area has become a real challenge as most of the institutions don’t have parking facility of their own.

Of the three dozen banks set up in Dhangadi Bazaar from Campus Road to Chatakpur, only a few have parking area of their own.

Officials and customers of other banks have been using footpaths and roadsides as parking lot, causing traffic chaos, not to mention negative effects of the haphazardly parked vehicles on the city’s beauty.

“The road here is narrow and we are having a tough time managing traffic. With new institutions set up in the bazaar area, vehicles are being parked in an unsystematic manner and this has caused a huge problem for us to manage traffic,” said inspector Khadak Bahadur Bhandari, Chief of Kailali District Police Office.

Bhandari further rued the apathy of the concerned banks and financial institutions towards this problem. “We have time and again urged them to do the needful to manage vehicles on their premises, but to no avail,” lamented Bhandari, calling for everyone’s help to solve the traffic problem.

There are as many as 35 private banks established in the main bazaar of Dhangadi.

According to Nepal Rastra Bank Dhangadi Deputy Director Dilaram Subedhi, there is no policy related to parking management for banks and financial institutions. “As of now, there is no policy, but we will do the needful to devise a policy.”