Buses departing valley by the thousand as Dashain fever grips

KATHMANDU, OCT 11 -

The annual Dashain exodus is in full swing with people rushing out of Kathmandu to their home towns and villages for the year’s greatest festival. As happens every year a few days before Dashain , a mass departure of the out-of-town population takes place when people return home to rejoin their families.   

For the last few days, thousands of buses, micro buses and other vehicles crammed with festival goers have been streaming out of Kathmandu, and scattering in all directions to various parts of the country.

On Wednesday, around 3,000 vehicles left the valley from Koteshwor alone, said Sub-Inspector Shiva Prasad Neupane of the Metropolitan Traffic Police (MTP) who has been assigned to head the help desk there.

Mukti KC, director at the Department of Transport Management, estimated that around 65,000 people left the valley on Wednesday. Departures are expected to be higher on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Transportation entrepreneurs said that the number of people who have left the valley so far has reached the level of last year’s Dashain departures.

According to the Federation of Nepal National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE), 1.3 million Dashain travellers left the valley last year. “We expect another 150,000 departures in the next few days,” said Dol Nath Khanal, general secretary the FNNTE. According to the federation, 3,500 buses are plying the country’s highways daily carrying people to different parts of the country.

Demand for bus tickets out of Kathmandu jumped this year due to the large number of job aspirants in town to sit for the Korean Language Test. Around 46,000 hopefuls have converged on the capital to take the exam.

“They are now leaving the valley, adding to the rush,” said KC of the Transport Management Department. “Calculating the number of buses required on the basis of each bus carrying 45 passengers, they will need 1,000 buses.”

Meanwhile, the department, police and transport entrepreneurs have set up help desks at a dozen places around the valley to help Dashain travellers and deal with their complaints. Most of the complaints are about bus companies not returning the money when buses broke down and leaving passengers stranded without arranging alternative transportation. People have also complained that the same seat was sold to two travellers. “We have resolved these complaints,” said Sub-Inspector Neupane.

Source: The Kathmandu Post