With the fall of the Rana regime and the country´s tryst with the modern era, commoners also started bringing a variety vehicles -- buses, auto-rickshaws and motorcycles -- into the valley. At present, hundreds of thousands of vehicles ply across the country. And, a majority of them vie for a little space in the already crowded valley. [break]
Despite the steady increase in the number of vehicles, the government is yet to wake up to displace the outdated vehicles. The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has repeatedly urged the government to displace outdated vehicles especially from the valley, but to no avail.
“Ever since the Ranas brought the first motor in the valley, everybody is just importing new ones; nobody is displacing them,” says Anil Gurung, director at the department. “Some vehicles are older than us.”
He says the need of displacement of outdated vehicles is urgent. “Our traffic system will not improve unless we displace the older vehicles,” he says.
A committee headed by Sharad Chandra Poudel, director general of DoTM, has recommended the government to displace over 20-year-old vehicles from the valley by providing 75 per cent discounts on customs duty while importing new ones. “The discount rate can be discussed,” he says, adding, “But we need not delay in displacing old vehicles.”
Barring only two exceptions, the government has never displaced old vehicles. In 1999, the government had displaced old three-wheelers, known as Bikram tempos, by providing discounts on customs duty to their owners. Similarly, in 2007, the government announced discount on customs duty to those who wanted to displace their private cars.
“The government should provide incentive to displace outdated public vehicles rather than the private ones,” says Dol Nath Khanal, general secretary of the National Federation of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs (NFNTE). “But the government is doing just opposite.” Khanal said they will not displace their vehicles without incentives.
According to DoTM, there are 3,500 outdated vehicles in the valley. Of them, just 525 are off the roads. Similarly, of the total 5,100 outdated vehicles across the country, just 765 have been scrapped. This means that most of the outdated vehicles are still plying regardless of their poor condition, worsening the already messed up traffic system.
However, Kamal Raj Pande, joint secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, says that the number of outdated vehicles is higher. At a recent interaction with lawmakers, Pande said that almost 10 per cent vehicles are over 20 years old. A total of 805,614 vehicles of all sorts have been registered at DoTM.
Going by what experts say, there is no age-bar for a vehicle. Its age or durability depends on how timely and properly its spare parts are repaired. However, DoTM has fixed an age bar for vehicles keeping in view with the lack of physical fitness center.
“We are examining fitness of a vehicles only by observing them with our bare eyes and hands,” Poudel says, adding, “hence, fixing a certain age bar for vehicles is not scientific.”
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