KATHMANDU, Jan 12: The third wave of COVID-19 has now been seen in Nepal. However, the minimum health standards are not being strictly followed in the means of public transport operating in the Kathmandu Valley.
About a quarter of the passengers on public transport in the valley still do not wear masks. Not only passengers but also drivers and conductors do not wear masks regularly, which increases the risk of infection of COVID-19.
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Shyam Chitrakar, a passenger who was traveling to Ratna Park from Kadaghari by bus, said that the risk has increased to a great extent as passengers and conductors of public buses do not wear masks. "There is a lot of risk in public transport when conductors and some unruly passengers do not wear masks," he said.
Passengers are forced to make risky journeys if transport operators do not effectively follow the health standards of the Public Transport Operation Guideline, 2077, formulated when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.
Public vehicles are carrying more passengers than their seat capacity in the morning and evening peak hours, defying the guideline. Not only that, most means of public transport in Kathmandu Valley do not even have sanitizers.
The district administration offices of Kathmandu and Lalitpur have issued separate public notices and directed the people to operate public vehicles with passengers only according to the seat capacity. However, due to the negligence of the monitoring bodies- Metropolitan Traffic Police and the Department of Transport Management, the risk of COVID-19 infection in the valley has increased.
