Ujeena Rana

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION 2.0

 Feature
 Transportation

Nepal’s fledging public transport sector caters to tens of thousands of

Nepalese every day. Some new ideas by enterprising youth can change
its impression as an untimely, unsafe and outdated services.

Microbuses were introduced in 1998 when the then government made a decree to remove
all the outdated buses from Kathmandu. In 1999, owners of the Vikram tempos enjoyed
discounts on custom duty while importing new microbuses. There was great jubilation when
fleets of these vehicles were paraded in the Valley. While it was a new business venture,
many entrepreneurs jumped on the bandwagon. Banks provided loans to these
entrepreneurs who saw prospects in this new enterprise. Everything was new and looked
good on paper. The bubble burst pretty soon.

Hemanth Raj Angdembay, Head of Consumer Loans at Standard Chartered Bank,

Kathmandu says, “SCB earlier provided loans to the microbus entrepreneurs but we have
now put it under the risky sector and in fact, it has been six or seven years since we
stopped entertaining such provision in our bank.” KIST Bank shares the same story. Many
others echo this decision. The reasons for the change in mood and amendment in the
banks’ strategy could be credited to the recovery problem and policy change introduced by
the state regarding the public transportationsector. As a result, these microbus
entrepreneurs now rely on finance companies and cooperative orgnazations. “Even though
the interest rates are high (14-20% for finance companies) and (18-20% for cooperatives)
microbus entrepreneurs have no alternative,” comments Rajan Rokka, Chairperson of
Pashupati Public Microbus Entrepreneurs Association who has 70 microbuses running
under his association. “A new microbus costs around 24 to 26 lakhs”, he adds. There are 70
microbuses on four routes under his association. An association like his, of which there are
268 in total, come under the National Federation of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs
(NFNTE), which is again under the Department of Transport Management of the Ministry of
Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management.

The new fares are introduced after the proposal is approved by the Ministry of Physical
Planning, Works and Transport Management. The Department of Transport Management
(DoTM) submits it after discussion with the transport organizations—National Federation of
Nepalese Transport Entrepreneurs and the Federation of Truck Tanker and Transport
Entrepreneurs. “For a short ride in a microbus, be it any route, commuters have to pay Rs.
15 minimum. The recent 9% increment from the earlier rate was introduced according to a
scientific fare determination conducted by the technical committee at DoTM that studied
price hike in fuel and non-fuel components including inflation, prices of spare parts,
lubricants, tyres and bank interest rates, among others, before suggesting the fare hike to
the concerned department.

“Transport fares are reviewed annually as per the scientific fare determination mechanism
implemented in 2009”, explains Rokka. In the seemingly lucrative deal, the student
concession is posing a problem. 45% discount is offered to students who present their
student ID cards. “But the problem is that 90% of the IDs turn out to be fake,” reports one
microbus conductor. “On a daily basis we lose Rs. 600-800 because of this,” he adds.

“6-7 lakh motorized vehicles run on the roads of the valley on a daily basis,” says Ashish
Gajurel, a transport engineer. Nevertheless, commuters are always crammed into public
vehicle. The Motor Vehicles and Transport Management Act 1993 makes it mandatory for
public transport entrepreneurs to reserve a certain number of seats for women, the disabled
and elderly people. The DIG of Traffic Police blames the insufficient number of vehicles. He
knows that even though punishing vehicles for exceeding capacity of passengers has
intensified with the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division cracking down on microbuses
booking many drivers for rash driving, things will continue downhill. On the contrary Gajurel
opines, “We don’t even need to introduce new vehicles to solve the problem. What we need
to work on is the system —since there is none.” Entrepreneurs should clearly join hands.

There are many interested candidates who plan to add value to the public transport sector.
Media Space Solutions, GalliGalli and ‘Yatayat’ under Monsoon Collective, and some others
are working in this sector. “People have always expressed an interest. However, there is a
bit of fear and lack of information to enter this sector; people think about unions, bandhs,
petrol shortage, strikes — all the negatives immediately; there are strong interest groups
and cartels that deter potential entrepreneurs,”explains Abhinab Basnyat, Founding Partner
at Biruwa Ventures. Possibly for similar reasons, GalliGalli has kept their project ‘No
Tension Sawari’ on hold. Meanwhile, everyone’s money is on ‘Yatayat’ a project under the
Monsoon Collective. “There are no maps of buses, microbuses or tempos that take us
through the myriads of streets in Kathmandu. Yatayat is a project to produce digital maps of
the public transportation system,” explains Prabhas Pokharel about his team’s ambitious
project. Leaving the old-school way of asking around, their solution sounds simpler.
Yatayat—the Android application is available from Google’s Play store. However, the main
interface to yatayat is the website yatayat.monsooncollective.org. It is not a complete work
yet.

Media Space Solutions is a rare success story. They are the advertising company behind
installing TVs on microbuses. The commuters are entertained and the entrepreneurs get
their returns in terms of the advertisements screened in between entertainment shows.

“In Nepal’s case, there are more entrepreneurship possibilities than in developed countries
because the majority here uses public transport which is much cheaper than using taxis and
private vehicles. The [public transport] service in Nepal is so bad that people tend to buy
private transport although they can hardly afford it. The reasons behind this are unreliability
and lack of safety in public transport,” says Ashish.

Also, certain mafia groups are rumored to oversee the workings of the sector. Many
microbus entrepreneurs accept the existence and presence of the mafia in the transport
business. They are quick to admit that the microbus associations are far from such hanky-
panky; however, inappropriate workings go on in the matter of issuing permit routes for the
bus service.

Venturing into public transport is not as easy as taking a microbus home, however, if you
are the kind who wants to introduce change, then, it could be just the right enterprise for
you. One needn’t necessarily buy a microbus to get involved in this sector; there are tens of
other ways to break the current impasse. Most importantly public transport should be
reliable, safe, and cheaper than using private vehicles. Likewise, the private sector should
bring innovative ideas and the government needs to help them with the implementation.