KATHMANDU, Jan 13: As per the government's instruction, municipalities of the Kathmandu valley have made preparations to register a new public transport company 'Upatyaka Nagar Yatayat Sewa Limited' next week to operate large buses in various routes of the Valley.
The municipalities have also agreed that the large buses will be ply the roads as 'Metro Bus' in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts of the Valley. But they are yet to set up an office of the company, recruit necessary human resources and appoint a chief executive officer.
Though the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has given a 15-day deadline which ends on Sunday, the municipalities could not complete all the necessary tasks to register the company within the deadline and informed the ministry that they will register the company by next week and begin other necessary processes to operate around 50 large buses in the first phase.
After Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal made announcement to operate 100 city buses in major cities of the country, the ministry on January 1 had asked four municipalities-Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Madhyapur Thimi and Budanilakantha-to cooperate with other 22 municipalities of the valley and register a public transportation company by the next 15 days. “But we could not complete necessary preparations. It will need extra one week and we have already informed the ministry about it,” Rajya Prakash Pradhananga told Republica.
Once the company is registered, the municipalities will appoint a chief executive officer, recruit necessary staff and make necessary preparations to operate the company in a full-fledged manner.
The 22 municipalities are going to invest Rs 100 million as their share of budget for the establishment of the office and for other operations.
According to Pradhananga, an official at Kathmnandu Metropolitan City (KMC), they have finalized their share of budget as KMC will invest Rs 20 million, the Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan will invest Rs 10 million and other municipalities will invest the remaining Rs 70 million.
Jiwan Kumar Shrestha, joint secretary at MoFALD, said that the municipalities are preparing to register a company but are yet to finalize the other details. The government has been planning to provide around 50 buses to Kathmandu Valley and 50 buses will be handed over to the municipalities outside of Kathmandu Valley.
While addressing the parliament meeting on September 8, Prime Minister Dahal had announced to operate 100 large buses in Kathmandu Valley, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj, Bharatpur, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Dhangadi, Pokhara, Surkhet and Ghorahi within the next six months.
The government has planned to invest Rs 680 million for buying the 100 large buses.