Commuters always face hardship of traffic jams in the capital. While going to office or school one has to spend an extra hour or two due to traffic jam.

Well, the most glaring causes for traffic jams include narrow roads and few alternatives for making a detour. As the population is steadily rising in the Kathmandu Valley, the number of vehicles is also on the rise. But the conditions of the roads have not improved at the same time.

In order to address this ever-growing problem, the government has taken steps to widen the roads and demolished the houses built on the roadsides. But the road widening works have been going on at a snail’s pace causing much difficulty to the public.

Only widening the roads will not be able to address the traffic congestion. The wider the roads become, the more the number of vehicles imported, causing more traffic problems.

The government does not have enough land to build more roads at some point. It is therefore necessary to find an alternative to the roads. It is high time that the government started working on metro train to connect the Valley with neighbouring cities, towns and villages.

In mega cities it is the metro train that provides transport service to thousands of people. We cannot be aloof on this idea. The four million people of the valley cannot be provided with easy and reliable transport services only through buses, minibuses, micros, and tempos.

A comprehensive plan is imperative to improve the transport services in the country.

Kashyab Maharjan, Dakshinkali

Happiness

This is in response to Sachin Dotel’s article titled “Are you happy?” (THT, January 19, Page 8). My entry to Nepal had occurred through the Bihar township of Raxaul. As our tonga crossed the Maitri bridge over Sirisiya river and entered Nepal, my joy knew no bounds for at last breathing the air of the beautiful Himalayan

nation. After an eight-day tour of Chitwan National Park, Pokhara and Kathmandu and gathering nice experience, it was the time to return. As we left Birganj and the tonga crossed the same bridge to return to India, but I got a bit depressed as the Nepal tour had come to an end. But when I started to view the perspectives from another angle, i.e. from “My Nepal sojourn has ended” to “I have experienced Nepal”, automatically my heart and mind got filled with happiness.

Yes, luxuries and comforts can never purchase happiness. Otherwise all the privileged elite and upper middle class would have been the happiest lot. Actually the act of remaining happy is nothing but an art. Barring exceptional circumstances like death, extreme crisis and inhuman torture, all can manage to remain happy if they try to remain content with what they already have instead of hankering after what they are missing from their lives.

Indeed someone had rightly said “Just remember there is someone out there that is happier with less than what you have”.

Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata