Lhotse Multipurpose company that manages the New Bus Park at Gongabu on Monday promised to set up a proper platform for commuters and offer efficient services.

Their announcement follows the transport ministry’s massive crackdown on transport cartels.

With Lhotse taking charge of the bus park from Sunday onwards, Kathmandu’s main bus terminal is now less chaotic and free from transport committees’ employees who often harassed commuters queuing to buy tickets.

The company is giving a facelift to the main ticket counter of the bus park with new colours. The place where many different transportation committees did their business is now uncluttered with a few ticket counters of Lhotse. The company has deployed its staff at the ticket counters to make the main ticket counter much effective and easy for the passengers.

Following instructions from the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), Lhotse removed all cartel members’ bus ticket counters at the bus park on Saturday evening and installed their counters.

Under public-private partnership, Lhotse operates the bus park since 2000. It manages ten different counters with each counter providing tickets for different destinations.

“With the end of the transport syndicate, Lhotse can now manage its work and provide better facilities to its customers,” said Binod Kunwar of Lhotse Multipurpose Pvt Ltd. The company has clearly written destinations names on all ten counters to inform passengers. Earlier, there were around 40 counters of different transportation committees at the main ticket terminal. Now, commuters can choose the transport company/buses they want to travel.

The company has promised commuters efficient services without any harassment or cheating. Earlier, brokers of transport cartels cheated many passengers. Grabbing passengers’ bags and forcing them to enter their vehicles was a common scene in the bus park. They used to charge exorbitant fares.

The commuters welcomed the company’s new working process. “When I travelled before many brokers forced me to book tickets to travel by their vehicles. I could not use my right to choose and travel as per my wishes. Today I could buy my own ticket peacefully” said Naresh Sharma travelling by bus to Dhangadi.

The number of people travelling out and into Kathmandu is less during this season. Sharma wonders how the company would manage the system during the festivals when more than 2 million people travel outside Kathmandu. “We don’t want another syndicate to rise during the festival seasons,” he said.

Lhotse and Kathmandu Metropolitan City had signed an agreement on August 10, 2015 to upgrade the bus park to international standards within four years. As per the agreement, the company would hand over the bus park to the metropolis after 45 years of operation and pay Rs 9.8 million per annum during the contract period.

As per the terms of the deal signed in 2015, the bus park will be developed with parking space for 800 buses, up from the current 450, along with state-of-the-art facilities.

According to the KMC, all public buses entering and exiting the Valley will be parked at the facility in Gongabu after upgradation, relieving places like Gaushala, Tilganga, Kalanki and Koteshwor of traffic jams and chaos because of haphazard parking.