By Laxman Kafle,Kathmandu, Oct. 10: On the first day of the opening of advance booking of ticket for the long and medium route buses, thousands of tickets were booked on Monday from early morning to evening.

The bus entrepreneurs have started advance booking of the bus tickets for the upcoming festival of Dashain since Monday.   

Advance ticket booking has been opened for those who have been living temporarily in Kathmandu for study, business and employment and other purposes to return to their hometowns to celebrate the festivals.

With six days left for Ghatasthapana, as the government has opened advance ticket booking, there has been a rush of passengers to buy tickets at the New Bus Park, Gongabu since Monday morning. This year, the number of passengers has also increased in the new bus park compared to previous years.

Passengers have complained about not getting tickets even after queuing for hours.

As hundreds of thousands of people leave Kathmandu at once, the crowd of passengers will increase before Dashain, so there has been a practice of opening advance booking of tickets from the past years.

According to past statistics, around 1.2 million passengers leave Kathmandu Valley during Dashain.

According to a decision of a meeting of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Department of Transport Management, transport entrepreneurs and traffic police held on October 6, 2023, advance ticket booking of bus tickets began from Monday, said Ishwori Datta Paneru, information officer of the Department of Transport Management.

Paneru said that passenger help desks will be established in 14 locations of the Kathmandu Valley to help the passengers willing to go home at Dashain. Help desks have been established in four places, including New Bus Park in Gongabu, Swayambhu, Kalanki and Koteshwor on Monday.

The representatives from the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office, the Department of Transport Management and transport entrepreneurs will be available at the help desks to address the grievances of the passengers.

"We have also managed a separate team for the monitoring of ticket counters operating in the capital to make advance ticket booking systematic and control the tendency to charge more fare than the fixed one," he said.

Paneru said that no transport entrepreneur is allowed to charge excess fares in the name of advance ticket booking.

He said that taking into consideration the tendency to charge excess fare for passengers, the Department has made arrangements to keep the official fare rates at Koteshwor, Naya Bus Park and Kalanki, including passenger help desks, to inform people about the fare.

"We have fixed the fares of three categories of vehicles, namely normal bus, AC bus and super AC bus," he said.

Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, Coordinator at Federation of Nepal National Transport Entrepreneurs, informed that advance ticket booking has been opened for long and medium distance passengers.

He said that advance ticket booking has been opened to go to all districts across the country, including Dhangadhi, Tikapur, Bajhang, Bajura, Salyan, Rukum, Pyuthan, Rolpa in the west and Taplejung, Ilam, Kakarvitta, Biratnagar, Udayapur and other places in the east.

He said that advance ticket booking has been started from places like New Bus Park, Gaushala, Chabahil, Koteshwor and Kalanki.

“We are committed to provide smooth services to passengers by managing more buses, microbuses operating during the day and night. We will operate an additional vehicles in routes which are available with us based on the pressure of passengers,” he told The Rising Nepal.

Stating that the flow of people at the ticket counters is significantly high today due to the first day of opening ticket booking, he assured that no passenger should be stopped in absence of a bus ticket to go to their destination.

Around 10,000 tickets sold on 1st day

He urged the passengers to buy tickets from the authorised persons and counters with confirmation.

Bhattarai said that the Federation would take action against those who charged more fare than the fixed amount.

He claimed that passengers will easily get tickets to go home this year.

The government has prepared to open road permits for all areas of the country for Dashain from Ghatasthapana.