The growing popularity of ride-sharing services such as Pathao, inDrive, Tootle and Yango has warranted their formalisation and regulation. Realising this, Gandaki Province has officially enforced its ride-sharing regulation—the ‘Gandaki Province Ride-Sharing (Regulation and Management) 2025’. This has ended uncertainty about the regulation’s implementation following widespread demonstrations by public transport operators against it in June last year. With this, Gandaki has become the first province to bring ride-sharing services under law, opening the door for similar actions in other provinces, most important, Bagmati, where ride-sharing services operated for the first time but remain unregulated due to bureaucratic hurdles, frequent government changes and provincial inaction.

Bagmati Province is home to the federal capital Kathmandu, where ride-sharing services are widely used. For many daily commuters, these services have become a life-saver amid Kathmandu’s unreliable and poor public transport system. Pathao, which operates in Nepal’s major cities, including Kathmandu, reports around 40,000 active riders in a month and an average of 65,000 rides nationwide. inDrive Nepal, another ride-sharing service, is also attracting both riders and drivers. Yango, which entered Nepal last year, focuses on the Kathmandu Valley. Currently, more than 25 ride-sharing companies employ an estimated 200,000 riders in Nepal.

But even as such services gain traction, regulation has not kept pace in the province, despite the Supreme Court recognising them as legitimate services given the jobs they create and the services they provide. The service was legalised in Nepal in 2024, after an amendment to the Industrial Enterprises Act, which recognised ride-sharing as a ‘service-oriented industry’. Following this, the provincial government started drafting the Ride-Sharing Guidelines, but they were never enacted due to frequent government changes. Even in January 2025, the court asked the then government to expedite ride-hailing laws, but the government failed to comply.

The provincial government’s inaction has become costly for daily commuters. Sometimes, they are overcharged, and at other times, offline riders who bypass the app-based monitoring systems pose safety risks to passengers, exposing them to misbehaviour and even crimes like abduction and robbery. When people take an offline ride for less money, their movement cannot be tracked, making it easier for offline riders to exploit passengers. Likewise, ride-sharing services become unreliable during sudden weather changes, traffic disruptions and festivals. In these situations, passengers can’t find riders and must pay arbitrary fees. As a result, the quality of their services has steadily declined over the years—and without laws, even ride service providers cannot address the problems of offline rides and arbitrary fares.

The province that sees the most widespread use of ride-sharing services cannot be exempt from regulations. The goal of bringing such services under law is to modernise the transport sector, make them more effective and ensure that they don’t harm consumers. To this end, Bagmati can emulate provisions implemented by its neighbouring province. Gandaki’s regulations, such as mandatory registration of such services, fare limits, digital operations, service distance and zone limitations, as well as insurance and safety requirements, are all worthy of emulation. Notorious for an unreliable and messed-up public transport system, particularly in Kathmandu Valley, it is incumbent upon Bagmati to properly manage the transport system—and ride-sharing services in particular, which most commuters prefer. If Gandaki can achieve it, so can Bagmati. All that’s needed is a little political will.