One of the many promises Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada made on Wednesday while presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2019/20 was the introduction of the electronic paying card system for public transportation.

Urban planners are already calling the announcement ad hoc, made without adequate homework and without taking ground reality into consideration.

 The plan is too ambitious, given the government’s failure to manage even basic public transportation infrastructure—zebra crossings, traffic lights and footpaths among others—and its apathy towards improving public transport system, they say.

“Technically, it’s not impossible to implement it, but in Kathmandu, there are so many private transport companies and they have become unmanageable,” said Bhusan Tuladhar, an environmentalist and also a board member of Sajha Yatayat, a public transport company. “All these companies need to be brought under one system for the implementation of the government plan. The government should have focused on bringing all these companies either under one unit, or at least grouped similar companies together.”

Sajha Yatayat has been operating Smart Travel Card, electronic prepaid card—for customers.

“If Sajha can implement this, the government can do it too,” said Kishor Thapa, an urban planner and former government secretary.

If the government is really working on making payment transparent and public friendly, the government should implement the system by coordinating with a few new companies that are operating new big luxury buses in the Kathmandu Valley.

In the past few years, over a dozen companies have entered the transportation sector and are operating luxury buses that can accommodate over 70 people.   

Apart from this, in the same announcement, the government also made a commitment to install Global Positioning System (GPS) on all public vehicles for better surveillance.   

However, this is not the first time Nepalis are hearing of this plan. In June last year also, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City had announced to install GPS system in public busses.  Even the Department of Transport Management has long been talking about installing GPS in public vehicles.