Transportation entrepreneurs have been charging three times the normal fare as the government agencies failed to monitor the transportation in and out of the Valley.
Thousands of desperate commuters thronged Gongabu bus park and Kalanki – the main exit point from the Valley – to travel back to home to their earth-quake hit families have been charged arbitrary by the transporters taking advantage of the crisis. People terrorised by the deadly earthquake have crowded at Kalanki to reach out to their loved ones at villages that are more badly hit by the earthquake.
Kathmandu was hit hard by 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Saturday damaging all the three world heritage sites and historic monuments badly, apart from death of estimated over 10,000 people across the country. Apart from hundreds of aftershocks, the country was again hit hard by 6.9-magnitude earthquake Sunday afternoon forcing the people to reach out to their quake-hit families in the districts. “But lack of government presence and enough vehicles in the time of crisis have become a money minting machine for some transport entrepreneurs,” said Gulmi-bound commuter Bipin Pandey, who was bargaining for transportation fare at Kalanki today afternoon.
Some commuters also chanted slogans inside the Buspark area and Kalanki today accusing transport entrepreneurs of overcharging and forgetting their business ethics.
There are very few vehicles plying on the road in and out of the Valley too.
“Most of the drivers and transport workers are from the hilly districts of Rasuwa, Dhading and Nuwakot, which have suffered heavy damages,” president of Bagmati Federation Transport Union Bharat Nepal said, adding that they have returned to their districts for rescue and rehabilitation.
The long-route vehicles to districts have been charging exorbitantly fare, complained another commuter Khimananda Pandey of Gulmi.

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