Bus ticket bookings for Dashain festival to open by Sept 21

The government and transporters are set to fix a date to open advance ticketing bookings for the Dashain festival within the next two weeks. The Department of Transport Management (DoTM), traffic police and transporters are in consultation to fix the exact day to start taking ticket reservations from customers.

Each year, ticket bookings for Dashain start 15-30 days before the festival. The country’s biggest festival gets under way on October 15 this year. The transport service plays a vital role, as around 50 percent of the population in the Kathmandu valley leaves for different parts of the country to celebrate the festival.

The National Federation of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs has asked the DoTM to allow ticket reservations to be taken from September 21. The DoTM officials said that the exact date to open ticket reservations will be fixed soon after discussions with the transporters, regarding the preparations, and traffic police to conduct monitoring inside and outside of the valley.

“We have plans to carry out monitoring in the transport sector and set up help desks for customers so that complaints can be filed,” said Mukti KC, spokesperson of the DoTM. The monitoring will be focused on controlling the trend of over charging customers and withholdings of bus tickets by transporters. As the demand for transport service increases heavily during the festival, the possibility of misleading customers with high charges (citing of lack of vehicles), and hoarding tickets are high. 

To address the complaints about the unavailability of tickets , the government last year set up 12 help desks in different parts of the valley. Dashain is the main time when road transport operators and airlines companies make a substantial percentage of their annual business. Airlines operate extra flights, while road transporters add new vehicles to existing fleets. Yogendra Karmacharya, president of the transporters’ federation said that all available vehicles will be operational, including those specifically allocated to easing the high demand of the festive season. “New vehicles are also being added by some transport entrepreneurs, coinciding with the season,” he added.

Meanwhile, the transporters’ federation has urged the government to complete road improvement works in sections like Mugling-Narayanghat, Narayanghat-Hetauda and Kathmandu-Naubise before Dashain. “Traffic jams on highways due to maintenance work have resulted in delays of around four hours to some destinations,” he added.

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has stated that the road improvement works will be completed in the sectors of Mugling-Narayanghat and Narayanghat-Hetauda before Dashain movement begins. “In the Nagdhunga-Naubise section, we will be carrying out improvement works only in Tayalghar and Khani Khola areas from September 17, for one month, without affecting two way vehicle movements,” he added.

source:the kathmandu post,8 Sep 2013