Mountains. The bus park located at Bandrebidi of Kushma Bazaar, the district headquarters of Parbat, is to come into operation after one and half years of its construction.

The decision to operate the bus park was taken following a discussion held at the office of Kushma Municipality on Tuesday among people’s representatives, transport entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. The meeting also decided to shift the ticket counters of all the transport companies in the Shivalaya Chowk area to the terminal building at Bus Park by 1 pm on October 28.

Similarly, among all the vehicles of the Yatayat Pvt÷Ltd, two taxis will be allowed to park at Shivalaya Chowk and other vehicles will be allowed to drop ÷ passengers at Shivalaya Chowk and all vehicles plying on long routes will be allowed to drop and drop passengers at Shivalaya Chowk and those parked unsystematically near the highway or in the market area will have to park inside the bus park.

Kushma Municipality had called for a tender for the operation of the bus park at a cost of Rs 1,119,252 on August 12. The tender was approved in the name of young entrepreneur Deepak Pun.

Bus park operator Deepak Pun said the vehicles going into and out of the district will be allowed to leave from the bus park on a regular basis. According to him, the hassle of where to wait for the vehicles will be removed and this will reduce the rampant parking and accidents. Pun said that all preparations including painting and electrification have been completed for the operation of the bus park.

Locals of the bazaar had been demanding the operation of the bus park for a long time, citing dilapidated structures, increasing number of road accidents due to unsystematic parking and deprivation of passengers from using vehicles safely.

Vehicles were parked haphazardly at Shivalaya Chowk and Mid-Hill Highway in Kushma due to the lack of bus park. The Intensive Urban and Building Construction Project Office, Baglung had handed over the structure of the bus park to Kushma Municipality in October last year. Ram Chandra Joshi, mayor of Kushma Municipality, said that the operation was delayed for some time due to internal preparations of the municipality.

District Traffic Police Chief Bal Bahadur Gurung said the operation of the bus park would help reduce the cases of unplanned parking and road accidents. The bus park constructed at a cost of Rs 66.63 million has been constructed at two different places. A two-storey building, ticket counter, passenger waiting room, toilets and half a dozen shutters for commercial purposes have been constructed.

Public vehicles ply from the Parbat district headquarters Kushma Bazaar to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Sunauli, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Kakarbhitta and other cities every day.