Public transportation or public torture

If you’ve already visited Nepal, you are probably well known to the condition of public transportation in Nepal. And if you have traveled in the public vehicles, you must have had a very hard time. If we just forget for a moment about the wonderful side of Nepal’s beauty, culture and all the amazing things it has been known for, there are still a lot of things to be managed in this country. One of those major things being transportation. I travel almost every day and travelling in the public vehicles here is a challenge for me and every another person. This is how bad the condition of vehicles here is.

Passengers are literally stuffed inside the vehicle like clothes stuffed in a suitcase. The vehicles are so packed that one can die of suffocation. They carry passengers more than the vehicles’ capacity. The number of passenger is almost double than that of the seats. We don’t easily get seats to sit on; we’ve to stand most of the time and the worst thing is you don’t even get a place for your feet. A lot of people come and go, they step on your feet, they push you, they touch you, and you've to tolerate all these because you've no alternatives. If you are standing, you can easily slip form the end to front if you don't have a very strong support. And it's worse in micro-buses; you can’t even stand straight, your head hits somewhere, your back hurts and you can't figure out where your hands and feet are. Not everyone can afford private vehicles here and taxi fare is very expensive here which also can’t be afforded by many people.