Painful journey home

Dashain hassle

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KATHMANDU, Oct 17: Six family members were desperately waiting for the bus to depart from Naya Bus Park, Gongabu, on Thursday afternoon. All of them were mentally prepared to do a relay for the seats in the bus on their way to hometown- Kakadvitta.

"It will take almost 19 hours for us to reach Kakadvitta. Six of us will take turns to sit on the bus seats, as we have got only three tickets," said Susan Rai, a student who is staying with her relatives in Kathmandu. She informed that they had to take turns for standing in queue for almost two days to get the three tickets also. They opted to travel with just three tickets in lack of any other option and were feeling fortunate for being able to join family members during the auspicious festival.

"We can't imagine being away from family during Dashain. All the traveling woes will wither away once we reach our hometown and rejoice with family and friends," added Rai.

The journey of Mitra G.C and three of his friends is also not going to be a comfortable one. Seats of the Arghakhachi bound bus were all booked therefore these four friends had booked spare tools placed in the walking ally between the seats of the bus. "We are ready to travel for 18 hours by sitting on the stools or even by standing. We have to reach home anyhow," said G.C. who along with his friends had returned to Kathmandu just three days ago for celebrating this year's Dashain with family.

These were two cases that reflect the trouble people are facing to return home from Kathmandu. Some are even forced to wait for several days even after having tickets as buses don't turn up at the departure stations due to petrol shortage. Unlike previous years, this year ticket counters in Naya Bus Park, Gaushala, Koteshwor, and Sundhara among others did not provide pre-ticket-booking facilities due to the ongoing fuel crisis.

Kumar Karmacharya, manager at Prime Deluxe and AC at New Bus Park, told Republica that they are not able to provide pre-booking of tickets to the general public as they don't have enough fuel to run the buses.

"We are giving tickets to travelers only after our buses arrive at the bus park and after ensuring that we have fuel to reach the destination. Buses need to queue up for fuel and in this condition we cannot send more than one bus," said Karmacharya adding that buses also needed escorting in the eastern parts of the country to reach their destination."

Ticket counters at Naya Bus Park informed that around 35 buses are leaving for various destinations on an average in a day. In previous years this average used to be around 60 buses.

Shortage of fuel across the country due to the ongoing unofficial blockade coupled with Dashain rush among people to return home has seriously affected the transportation services.

In the past Dashains around 2.6 million people used to travel out of Kathmandu but this year the number has been around 3,00,000, informed National Federation of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs (NFNTE). According to Bagmati Zonal Coordinator of NFNTE, Dharma Raj Rimal, they are aiming to transport at least 1 million people from Kathmandu to other parts of the country.

"We are helpless as we do not have enough fuel to run all the buses. Only those succeeding to refuel are operating and the number of buses on the move is hardly sufficient to fill the need," said Rimal.

"Currently, there are over 800 buses operating on long routes, the number which is only 35 percent to the total buses we have," he added.