Ban on old vehicles

It is hard to believe the Department of Transport Management, according to which there are only around 2,500 vehicles that are over 20 years old and are still plying the roads of Kathmandu valley.



Even department officials admit that this is only a tentative figure in the absence of more exact data. If so, how will the government implement the ban on 20-year-old vehicles that came into effect

starting March 1st? It is strange that even though the government declared its intention to ban old vehicles two years in advance—supposedly to owners time to dump their creaking vehicles—it did not then undertake a detailed study to determine the number of old vehicles on Kathmandu’s streets.



So working out the number of these vehicles, and soon, will be the first challenge for the department. The second challenge will be the threat of transport entrepreneurs that they won’t accept such a move, unless some of their conditions are first met. These conditions include compensations for owners of old vehicles, 95 percent tax waiver on import of tourist vehicles and 75 percent tax waiver on import of other vehicles.



The transport entrepreneurs have no case. Two years of advance notice was more than enough time for owners of old vehicles to prepare. And why should the government compensate them for disposing off their old vehicles, which would, even without the ban, have broken down before long, and, which, moreover, were a big health menace for valley denizen? Not only are they belching copious amounts of noxious chemicals through their exhausts. The old vehicles are also responsible for a disproportionate number of accidents and untimely loss of life and property. And the unrelated demand on tax waiver makes even less sense. The government is bang on when it insists that all Nepali citizens are entitled to safe public transport. This is why it is imposing a similar ban in the rest of Nepal after a year. But such bans, even if they are rigorously imposed, aren’t enough. Even relatively new vehicles can emit a lot of dangerous pollutants if they are not properly maintained. Thus if the government is serious about the health of its citizens, the only vehicle-exhaust testing facility in Kathmandu, which has been out of operation for the past four years, needs to be swiftly repaired and all vehicles, both private and public, must be strictly monitored for air pollution.



Along with this, the use of small private and public vehicles should be discouraged by arranging for reliable mass transport. Bus services like Sajha Yatayat and Mahanagar Yatayat, both of which run cheap, reliable and clean buses in Kathmandu, need to be expanded to cover all the major population centers in Kathmandu (and outside). And what happened to the metro rail system for

Kathmandu, which used to be on the agenda of every government until recently? And what about ropeways to ferry people about? Ropeways, according to some studies, are more suitable for

Kathmandu than the metro rail system. And what are you going to do about the dust on our roads?



Banning of old vehicles was long due. But it is only a small step on the path to developing Kathmandu as a clean and green capital that is also fleet of foot.