ahlam1399
04-17-2017, 08:29 PM
https://www.thenews.com.pk/assets/uploads/akhbar/2017-04-17/l_199048_032107_print.jpg KATHMANDU: Nepal’s government is trying to tackle rising pollution levels in the smog-choked Kathmandu Valley, but standing in the way is a powerful bus mafia that controls the capital’s roads.
The rulers of Kathmandu’s streets are a web of transport syndicates made up of private bus owners who have repeatedly blocked official attempts to modernise the highly inefficient bus network. Critics say these associations have managed to win control over the roads and ensure laws stay favourable to them by making payments masked as political donations to key political figures.
"There is ** regulatory mechanism that is strong e**ugh to control them," said Kanak Dixit, chairman of Sajha Yatayat, a cooperative bus company trying to break the hold of the transport mafia.
"This sector has so much cash liquidity that they are able to influence the politicians and therefore they get their way."
A $30 million six-year programme mostly funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) aimed at cleaning up the system, by introducing larger buses in busy areas and redrawing overlapping routes, is gathering dust.
Meanwhile more than 10,000 buses and minibuses in varying states of disrepair ply the streets of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur -- three cities that bleed into each other, making up the largest urban area in the country.
"We prepared a very excellent report with the help of do**rs, but when it came to the implementation phase we failed to materialise it," Bimal Prasad Subedi, deputy director of the Kathmandu Sustainable Urban Transport Project (KSUTP), told AFP.
"They (the bus syndicates) protested against our plans... They are private entities and don’t want to lose their profit."
Corruption in Nepal has flourished during the political instability that followed the end of the decade-long civil war in 2006 and seen the country cycle through nine governments since then. The impoverished Himalayan nation is currently ranked 131 out of 168 countries in watchdog Transparency International’s global corruption perception index.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/fH3SmZIpapM
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/fH3SmZIpapM/199048-The-bus-mafia-controlling-Nepals-smog-choked-capital)
The rulers of Kathmandu’s streets are a web of transport syndicates made up of private bus owners who have repeatedly blocked official attempts to modernise the highly inefficient bus network. Critics say these associations have managed to win control over the roads and ensure laws stay favourable to them by making payments masked as political donations to key political figures.
"There is ** regulatory mechanism that is strong e**ugh to control them," said Kanak Dixit, chairman of Sajha Yatayat, a cooperative bus company trying to break the hold of the transport mafia.
"This sector has so much cash liquidity that they are able to influence the politicians and therefore they get their way."
A $30 million six-year programme mostly funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) aimed at cleaning up the system, by introducing larger buses in busy areas and redrawing overlapping routes, is gathering dust.
Meanwhile more than 10,000 buses and minibuses in varying states of disrepair ply the streets of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur -- three cities that bleed into each other, making up the largest urban area in the country.
"We prepared a very excellent report with the help of do**rs, but when it came to the implementation phase we failed to materialise it," Bimal Prasad Subedi, deputy director of the Kathmandu Sustainable Urban Transport Project (KSUTP), told AFP.
"They (the bus syndicates) protested against our plans... They are private entities and don’t want to lose their profit."
Corruption in Nepal has flourished during the political instability that followed the end of the decade-long civil war in 2006 and seen the country cycle through nine governments since then. The impoverished Himalayan nation is currently ranked 131 out of 168 countries in watchdog Transparency International’s global corruption perception index.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/fH3SmZIpapM
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/fH3SmZIpapM/199048-The-bus-mafia-controlling-Nepals-smog-choked-capital)