Chances of accidents are high as most of the buses belonging to Karnali Yatayat operate only in the night along the Kalikot-Jumla section of the highway. The latest most deadly accident that killed 28 and injured 11 people on the Kalikot-Jumla section of the highway had also occurred in the night.[break]
“It is quite scary to travel on the Karnali highway in the day itself,” says Min Bahadur Thapa, chairman of Karnali Yatayat. “If the buses operate only in the night, then more road accidents are bound to occur in the days to come.”
Until three months ago, Karnali Yatayat and Madhya Paschim Yatayat, two syndicates operating along the highway, both used to carry passengers from Surkhet to Jumla. All the buss would leave Surkhet at 5 p.m. and reach Manma, the district headquarters of Kalikot, the next morning. After a break in Manma, the buses would head to Jumla and reach there in the evening.
However, since last May, only the buses belonging to Madhya Paschim Yatayat are operating along the Surkhet-Kalikot section of the highway.
The Madhya Paschim syndicate has not allowed any buses belonging to the Karnali syndicate to come down from Manma. In response, the Karnali syndicate has also prevented the buses owned by the Madhya Paschim syndicate from plying along the Kalikot-Jumla section of the highway.
As a result, passengers have to board two buses, one belonging to the Madhya Paschim syndicate and another owned by the Karnali syndicate, to reach Jumla from Surkhet. The buses owned by the Madhya Paschim drop all the passengers at Khidki Jyula of Kalikot from where they have to walk a distance of around 15 km to reach Manma. The passengers reach Manma only in the afternoon and they have to catch night buses to reach Jumla.
The dispute between the two syndicates has not only risked the lives of the passengers but also forced them to spend more time and money in travelling. Had the two syndicates not divided the highway into two sections, the travelers would have been able to reach Jumla from Surkhet in 24 hours.
Now, they have to spend almost 36 hours. Also, they have to pay Rs 300 more. “When the same bus would go to Jumla from Surkhet, we would have to pay just Rs 1,200,” says Janak Raut, of Kudari VDC in Jumla. “Now, we have to pay from Rs 1,500 - Rs 900 for Kalikot-Jumla and Rs 600 for Surkhet-Kalikot. The syndicates have forced us to suffer unnecessarily.”
Much of the Surkhet-Kalikot section of Karnali highway is black-topped. However, the Kalikot-Jumla section is very bumpy and narrow. In many parts, the highway is just 3 km wide. Before the rivalry between the two syndicates took a nasty turn, the buses would operate along the bumpy Kalikot-Jumla section in the day. Despite the buses operating only in the day, accidents used to occur frequently on the Kalikot-Jumla section. The passengers say the new system will cause more accidents in future days.
Ramu Shrestha, booking in-charge of Madhya Paschim Yatayat, admits that their rivalry with Karnali Yatayat has created troubles for passengers. But, he says that they are not responsible for creating problems. “We believe that both of us should operate our buses along the whole highway stretch,” says Shrestha.
“But, they (Karnali Yatayat) did not allow us to operate our buses on the Kalikot-Jumla road; and we also barred them from coming down.”
However, Karnali Yatayat says that they had to prevent the buses owned by Madhya Paschim Yatayat after the latter opened their counter in Jumla.
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