December 16: Though the government had formally abolished syndicate system in transportation on May 7 last year by directing the existing transportation committees/associations register themselves under the Companies Act, it seems that the government has failed to implement the decision. Moreover, the government itself has extended the deadline for the committees to register themselves under the Companies Act till mid-March. This is the third time that the committees have been given chance to register themselves as companies.

The government issued such directive considering that there was syndicate system in transportation sector while operating public vehicles. The government had made it mandatory for the transportation cartels to run their services under the company model within mid-August of last year. However, the bodies were not registered as companies due to which the government had given them chance to get registered within mid-December this year. Since the transportation committees failed to meet the second deadline, the government again gave them a lifeline by extending the deadline once again upon the request from the transport entrepreneurs.

 According to the president of Federation of Nepalese National Transportation Entrepreneurs Yogendra Karmacharya, they are positive about registering the transportation committees and associations under the Companies Act but added that they need some more time for this.

“The government has extended the deadline till mid-March and we will adopt the company model by that time.”

According to the Department of Transportation Management, more than 200,000 public vehicles are plying the roads across the country out of which 3000 transportation committees have registered for route permits for 8000 vehicles.  Speaking at a programme on Saturday, December 15, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation Raghubir Mahaseth said the formation of transportation authority will be carried out for the management of transportation sector in the country. For that, a committee has been formed and it will start operation under the Public-Private Partnership model from April 14, 2019, informed Mahaseth.