KATHMANDU, April 17: The government is preparing to cease the vehicles of transport entrepreneurs who are in favor of syndicate.

The government is planning to take this step following the announcement of the strikes by Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE) against the government step of breaking transport syndicate. The government will deploy security forces to operate those vehicles.

Government is taking this step to foil the strike announced by the FNNTE schedule for May 3 and indefinite strike from May 9.

Secretary for Ministry of Home Affairs, Prem Kumar Rai stated the government will not compromise the halt in public services. He reiterated the government's stance and committed to taking action against those who breach the law.

In a bid to break transport syndicates highly prevalent in the country, the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) introduced a new Transport Management Directive on April 1.

The new directive comes into effect at a time when transport syndicates along the Arniko Highway have threatened a newcomer Mayur Yatayat Transportation Service to stop its operation along Banepa-Dhulikhel route of the highway. As many as 14 transport committees that operate along the Arniko Highway united against Mayur Yatayat as the newly introduced transportation service posed threat to their strong syndicate empire.

Mayur Yatayat has been operating along the ring road of the Kathmandu Valley. It also operates buses between Koteshwor of Kathmandu and Banepa along the  Arniko Highway. The DoTM had issued the route permit for 24 buses of the company on March 15, which has caused a huge uproar among the transport syndicates operating on that route.

Under the new directive, those planning to get route permits for public vehicles no longer have to bring the recommendation from the existing private transport committees registered at the district administration offices.

No need for newcomers to secure the recommendation from transport committees has been taken as a major step forward to break the existing transport syndicates prevalent across various routes of the country. The move is a major reversal from the old Transport Management Directive, 2004, that had mandated newcomers to get permission from the transport committees.

Instead of getting a recommendation from the transport committees, those wanting to operate public transportation now have to register a company and come under the Companies Act, 2006. With this, transport entrepreneurs violating any law would be punished as per the Companies Act, according to Rupanarayan Bhattarai, director general of the DoTM.

“The directive has been introduced after incorporating suggestions from all the sides. With this, we will no longer tolerate any form of transport syndicate,” said Bhattarai. “We are fully committed to implementing the directive. Stern actions will be taken against those refusing to abide by it.”

 
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