KATHMANDU: Bus ticket booking has opened from today in advance for the convenience of passengers going home for the Dashain holidays.
Passengers can be booked advance tickets from Gangabu Buspark, Kalanki, Balkhu, Old Buspark, Koteshswor, Tilganga, Gaushala, Chabahil, Swoyambhu, Sundara, Nagdhunga, Jagati, Lagankhel, and other bus counters.
The advance bus ticket booking for the public is usually opened a month before Dashain festival begins. However, every year transport entrepreneurs put forth their demands and conditions before opening the booking of bus tickets, thereby delaying advance booking of bus tickets.
The meeting between the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), transport entrepreneurs and traffic police on September 13 decided to open the booking of bus tickets for Dashain from September 22.
Though transport entrepreneurs had been seeking a hike in public transportation fare prior to opening the booking of bus tickets for the festive season, DoTM said that bus ticket bookings will be opened based on the current transportation fare.
Transport entrepreneurs have been pressurizing the government to raise the public transportation fare prior to opening the bus ticket booking.
Citing that price of fuel and other non-fuel items has surged significantly, transport entrepreneurs have been seeking a revision in public transportation fare before the festive season begins.
DoTM had raised public transportation fare by 20 percent in June citing the rise in the price of fuel and other non-fuel components that are taken into consideration while determining public transportation fare. However, the government had immediately rolled back the decision under direction from the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
Similarly, the meeting has also decided to set up help desks across 14 different places in Kathmandu Valley to facilitate festive travelers. Along with this, DoTM has also formed a central monitoring committee under the coordination of the department’s Director-General Gogan Bahadur Hamal to ease the festive movement of vehicles and people as well as control possible anomalies in transportation fare during Dashain.
Hundreds of thousands of people leave the Capital for their home districts for the festival.
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