A new bus stop approved by the Road Safety and Transport Authority (RSTA) at Chhumig Gewog in Bumthang is becoming a cause of concern for passengers and local authorities alike. The bus stop, which is in an isolated area, has been approved for halting buses travelling between Thimphu and eastern districts last year.
People complain about early departure timing, safety issues and other associated problems about the new route and the bus stop.
To crosscheck complaints and grievances from travellers, BBS went to the new bus stop at Nangar in Chhumig Gewog along the newly paved Ura-Nangar bypass road. When BBS reached the site at 5:40 am this morning, buses have already left the hotel in visibly bad weather conditions despite the instructions from the RSTA Head Office in Thimphu to leave at 6 am a few days ago.
There are currently no RSTA officials and traffic police in Bumthang deputed to monitor the buses and conduct Pre-Departure Inspection. Bumthang police after receiving various complaints from passengers wrote to RSTA about the coordination problems they were facing, recently. So far, no action has been taken. Passengers have been also complaining about poor mobile network accessibility in the area and lack of choices of hotels, as there are no other lodging facilities nearby.
“Mobile network is inaccessible here. We can’t make calls from our phones. They have a Wi-Fi facility but the connection is poor. There is no choice of hotels here. We get to choose the kind of hotel we want to stay in when buses halt at Chamkhar,” shares a passenger.
“People in Chamkhar and neighbouring areas share us that they have to go early in the morning even before the break of dawn when they have to drop passengers at the new bus stop in Chummig. Some have to hire taxis to catch the buses. RSTA hasn’t discussed the approval of the new route with us. We haven’t known about what’s happening at Chhumig until people complained about the inconveniences they were facing,” said Ugen Sangay, the Bumthang Thromde Ngotshab.
“The buses that halt at Chhumig don’t follow proper departure timing. Sometimes they leave at 5 am and sometimes at 5:30 am, so people from Chamkhar often miss the buses. There are no traffic police and RSTA officials assigned to monitor the buses at Chhumig. There is no one to check if the drivers are carrying extra passengers and luggage or if they follow the departure timing or if they are intoxicated. So the risk of an accident is heightened,” added Pema Dawa, from Chamkhar in Bumthang.
Currently, 4 buses owned by private transport service company travelling between Thimphu and Trashigang, Trashiyangtse and Rangjung halt at the hotel, which is also owned by the same company.
According to the service provider, passengers are made aware of the stop at Nangar at the ticket counters. And most times, the buses travel in its full capacity. Moreover, when the bus services were re-routed via Nangar – Ura bypass, it was announced through the mainstream media. In the past, all the buses used to halt at Chamkhar, which is about 20 kilometres away from the current bus stop, at the expense of the service provider. The stop was also shifted to the current location to promote business prospects of the neighbouring Chummig town and to ease crowding of business at the Chamkhar town.
Regarding the mobile connectivity, considering its poor connectivity, a fixed phone has been installed in the hotel for public use free of charge.
The service provider added that the departure timing of 5.30 AM is as per the route permit issued by the RSTA when the services were introduced.
Meanwhile, the Bhutan Telecom office in Bumthang said the connectivity in the area will be covered through their tower at Takar village, which will be constructed soon. It is expected to be operational latest by March or mid of this year.
As per the RSTA, buses were allowed to travel via Nangar-Ura bypass following public demand.
“Actually Nangar-Ura bypass was constructed and even after the completion of the bypass RSTA didn’t allow buses to ply by for quite some time. But later on, some public wanted to travel directly via Nangar-Ura bypass road. Having constructed the road it was convenient for the travellers in view of lesser travel time and to cut down the cost. We also had a discussion in the Ministry. After the approval of the Ministry, we suggested those operators wishing to travel via Nangar-Ura bypass to amend the contract and those who amended the contract have been now allowed to operate via the Nangar-Ura bypass,” said Prem P. Adhikari, the Chief Regional Transport Officer at RSTA.
He also shared that Pre-Departure Inspection at Nangar is not so important as buses are checked from the originating bus terminals. Moreover, he added that mobile network issues could be subjective views as the hotel provides Wi-Fi service.
“Actually the buses travelling via Nangar-Ura bypass are travelling between Thimphu and eastern destinations. So Pre-Departure Inspection (PDI) of the buses are conducted at the originating terminal like if a bus is travelling from Thimphu to Trashigang, pre-departure inspection is conducted at Thimphu and they are night halting at Nangar. So the question of PDI may not be that important at Nangar because they are already destined. Regarding mobile connectivity, we are told it is quite low. So some passengers might be facing inconvenience but we are told that there is wifi connectivity in the hotel at Nangar. So these views could be subjective and as of now we haven’t received any complaints from the passengers formally regarding the inconveniences faced,” he added.
The issues were also raised during a recent meeting between the Information and Communications Minister and RSTA’s Director-General with the business community and taxi drivers of Bumthang. However, no significant outcome could be realised from the meeting.
Regarding the departure timing, RSTA, however, told BBS that they have issued a written instruction to the bus operator to change the timing to 6 am instead of 5:30 am a few days ago.
Kipchu/Phub Gyem
