The Metropolitan Traffic Police Division has started seizing three-wheelers which they say have been operating illegally in Kathmandu.

The traffic authority has impounded over a dozen such vehicles from different parts of the city according to Superintendent of Police Shyam Krishna Adhikari, also the spokesperson at the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division.

The impounded vehicles were registered to operate in Hetauda, Makwanpur.

Adhikari said the seized vehicles were handed over to the Department of Transport Management and those vehicles are already sent to Hetauda

Gogan Bahadur Hamal, chief of the transport department, said three-wheelers have been banned from operating in Kathmandu as per a Cabinet decision of 2013.

“Three-wheelers, including auto rickshaws and electric rickshaws, have been banned in Kathmandu because they are more prone to cause or get into accidents and contribute to traffic jams,” said Hamal.

Over 1.2 million vehicles ply the road of Kathmandu every day. If all the vehicles in Kathmandu Valley were to be laid end to end, their length would far exceed the total length of the roads in the Valley, according to a 2016 traffic report.
Kathmandu traffic authority suspects there could be more three-wheelers operating illegally in the inner parts of the city.

“We have stepped up our surveillance,” said Adhikari, the spokesperson of the traffic police division. He said mostly those carrying five people are found being run illegally. “Even some were found carrying loads in the Valley,” said Adhikari.

Officials are not sure how the vehicles registered in Hetauda entered Kathmandu.

Urban planner Suman Maher Shrestha suspects the three-wheelers operating in Kathmandu were smuggled in by some unscrupulous businesspersons.

“Three-wheelers could cause a serious problem in a city like Kathmandu where the problem of traffic congestion is getting severe by the day,” said Shrestha.

When the Post contacted Bhakta Bhandari, chief of transport Management Service in Hetauda, he said how the three-wheelers registered in Hetauda were operating in Kathmandu he had no idea.

“The office has not issued permission for any three-wheelers to operate even in the core city area. I am surprised how those vehicles reached Kathmandu,” said Bhandari. “This is illegal, three-wheelers registered in Hetauda cannot operate in Kathmandu.”

According to the transport office in Hetauda, 1,395 three-wheelers including electric rickshaws have obtained operation permits.