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Dashain Travel: Queues at Kathmandu New Bus Park From Dawn

Hundreds queued at Gongabu from early Friday for long distance tickets home. Advance bookings reached 153,732, and damaged highways are slowing buses.

By Orbit Post2 min read
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Dashain Travel: Queues at Kathmandu New Bus Park From Dawn

Key points

  • Hundreds of passengers queued from the early hours of Friday, October 16, at the New Bus Park in Gongabu, Kathmandu, to buy long distance bus tickets home for Dashain, with many heading to western…
  • Help desks have been set up for passengers at the bus park, but the queues still formed in person.
  • A total of 153,732 passengers had booked advance tickets for Dashain travel by October 15, Peoples Review reported, citing Traffic Police figures.

Hundreds of passengers queued from the early hours of Friday, October 16, at the New Bus Park in Gongabu, Kathmandu, to buy long distance bus tickets home for Dashain, with many heading to western Nepal, Sudurpaschim and Karnali.

Help desks have been set up for passengers at the bus park, but the queues still formed in person. That is the service picture on the busiest travel weekend of the year in Nepal: people want a confirmed seat before they travel, and they are lining up to get one.

The numbers behind the queues

A total of 153,732 passengers had booked advance tickets for Dashain travel by October 15, Peoples Review reported, citing Traffic Police figures. The daily bookings were 21,300 on October 9, 76,079 across October 10 and 11, 17,197 on October 12, 15,553 on October 13, 18,529 on October 14 and 5,074 on October 15.

The wider exodus is larger. Traffic police said 348,314 people left the Kathmandu Valley between Ghatasthapana and Friday morning. Spotlight Nepal reported an estimate that more than 1.5 million people will leave the valley in total to celebrate Dashain with family. Phulpati falls on Saturday, October 17, so the peak is still running.

Roads are the weak point

Transport operators said damaged national highways are making services hard to manage. Peoples Review reported that a section of the Prithvi Highway at Galaundi in Dhading subsided on October 9, the day advance booking opened, and many vehicles were stranded in Kathmandu.

The Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs urged passengers to travel only after buying a ticket, to pay the set fares, and to check the condition of the vehicle before travelling. For families in the diaspora watching relatives travel home this weekend, the practical advice travels too: confirmed ticket first, set fare, and extra time for damaged roads.

Sources