KATHMANDU: With the Dashain Tika hardly a week away, the unavailability of bus tickets has hit the out-bound passengers.

The Department of Transport Management (DTM) opened advanced booking of bus tickets starting September 22, but the shortage of tickets began from the very next day.

Customers could not find especially long-route bus tickets from September 23 to go to their home villages despite the DTM’s assurances.

Jeevan Limbu, who has just returned to Nepal from Qatar, tried many ticket counters for bus tickets at New Bus Park on Monday (September 23), but in vain.

Limbu, who arrived in Kathmandu on September 25, was forced to obtain a ticket on the black market by paying Rs 500 more after he did not get it from the counter.

The pre-booking of bus tickets is usually opened during the Dashain festival for those going back home to celebrate the festival.

The tickets are sold in the setting between the hotelier and staffers of the ticket counters.

“It was not so difficult to come back home from Qatar but I found it more difficult to go back home from Kathmandu due to the unavailability of tickets,” said Limbu. Limbu underlined the need to make an arrangement for sale of tickets through the online system.

Likewise, Bharat Shahi of Dhangadi did not tell a different story. He got a ticket only after waiting in the line for three days.

“I got a ticket with great difficulty, now the same hassle will repeat while returning to Kathmandu. We, people in general, do not get tickets unless we have a close relationship either with a hotelier or staffer of a ticket counter,” said Shahi.

“A staffer of a ticket counter allocates around 10 tickets for a hotelier,” he said adding, “Even though the government has ordered bus ticket counters not to sell tickets in bulk, it has gone unabated.”

The tickets are sold in the setting between the hotelier and staffers of the ticket counters.

Sabin Adhikari of Taplejung shares that he had to struggle hard to get a ticket for Birtamod. He had to go from counter to counter asking for tickets for days in Chabahil area.  He is worried about getting tickets from Birtamod to Taplejung again.

People from across the country throng New Bus Park for tickets almost every day around this time, who complain about the unavailability of tickets.

Talking to Khabarhub, Gogan Bahadur Hamal, general director of the DTM, said that the government has set up help desks at major junctions in the capital to ensure the availability of tickets.

“The DTM has deployed a monitoring team in each help desk to avoid the hassle passengers  might face while buying tickets.  The DTM has also reached an agreement with bus entrepreneurs to arrange additional vehicles in view the Dashain festival,” said Hamal.

However, Saroj Sitaula, general secretary of the Federation of Nepali National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE), dismissed the claim of Hamal, saying that new buses have not been arranged, targeting this festival.

On the other hand, the condition of the roads is very bad. “We have urged the vehicles’ entrepreneurs to operate vehicles in view of the Dashain festival despite having bad condition of the roads,” said Sitaula.

He criticized the government for trying to earn chief popularity by paying a mere lip-service. “As a matter of fact, it has done nothing to sort out the issues related to transport,” said he.

Around 1.5 million tickets have been booked already by outbound passengers and 3 million tickets from across the country, according to the FNNTE.

The DTM has said that it has set up ticket counters at Gongabu Bus Park, Koteshwar, Kalanki, Balkhu, and Sundhara Police with security personnel deployed in each desk.

With just a week to go by, people, in general, are still desperately looking for tickets for the Dashain festival.

Earlier, the pre-ticket booking had been opened by hiking 10 percent of the bus fare.

This year pre-ticket booking has been opened without any increment.

Around 3 million people are expected to leave the Kathmandu Valley for Dashain festival.