The Kathmandu Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) will set up 12 help desks in different parts of Kathmandu Valley to check black marketeering of bus tickets during the Dashain festival.    

The meeting between public transport operators and the officials from the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) on Sunday agreed to open festival ticket booking from September 21. With that decision, the MTPD has also announced that it would be setting up help desks from the very day public transport operators open festival ticket booking.    

The MTPD estimates that 3 million people will leave the Valley for their hometowns to celebrate Dashain.

In the festival’s run-up, passengers often complain of high ticket prices charged by travel agents and transport operators.

To ensure that passengers are not fleeced, the MTPD will not only set up help desks for travellers, but will also monitor the public transports leaving the Valley.

“We will take immediate action if any transport company is found charging higher ticket prices to passengers,” said Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Lamsal, spokesperson at the MTPD.  “Vehicles carrying passengers more than their capacity will also be punished.”

The help desks would provide information about the ticket rates as well as take complaints from travellers. Each desk will have officials representing the Nepal Police, the DoTM, the Department of Commerce, the Federation of Transportation Entrepreneurs’ Associations, consumer groups and trade unions affiliated to various political parties.

These help desks will be set up at Nagdhunga,  Kalanki, Swayambhu, Naya Bus Park, Purano Bus Park Sundhara, Chabahil, Tilganga, Koteshwor, Jagate, Lagankhel and Balkhu.

This year, the MTPD has also made it mandatory for ticket counters to have the ticket price listing on their desks. It has also instructed the ticket sellers to wear their identity cards.