Nepal’s Biggest Festival Season: 3-4 Million People Likely to Leave the Valley for Dashain

September 13, 2017

After rounds of discussions with the Government of Nepal, the Nepali Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE) has finally opened ticket bookings for those travelling to their hometowns for celebrating the country’s biggest festival, Dashain.

Thousands of Nepali citizens started waiting in queues at various bus ticket counters since early hours to book their tickets. Unfortunately, most of them were shocked to hear that tickets were already sold out.

Rajesh Khetan (55), who reached Gongabu Bus Park early in the morning, was surprised to see a long queue at the ticket counter. Even after a seven hour of wait, Khetan had to return with empty hands as he was told all the tickets to his hometown were already sold out.

“Even though it was raining, I got here at 3:00 AM. At 10:00 AM when my turn finally came I was unable to get a single ticket,” says Khetan.

“Having learnt a bitter lesson last year, I had arrived here at 3:30 AM. But it was no different this year as well,” says Krishna Chaudhary (35), who arrived at another counter at 3.30 AM to book tickets for his hometown.

FNNTE General Secretary Saroj Sitoula expected that passengers would get bus tickets easily this time, compared to previous year. However, things were in contrast at the Gongabu Bus Park, the main station from where most of the outbound buses from Kathmandu Valley leave to other places.

According to Sitoula, around 3-4 million people are likely to leave the Valley to their hometowns for Dashain festival celebrations to be held from September 21-20, 2017.