The <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/rescuing-kathmandus-from-its-future-public-transport-and-traffic-challenges,1877">former Bogota mayor Enrique Peñalosa</a> who implemented a successful bus rapid transit system for his city once said: “Democracy can be measured by the width of a country’s sidewalks.” To this, we could add that the state of democracy in a country can also be measured by the quality of its public transport system. Going by that criteria, Nepal is not doing very well. “We forget that the first word in public transport is public,” says urban planner <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/public-transport-is-equal-to-public-health,844">Bhushan Tuladhar</a>. “Public transport in Nepal needs a complete reform from route structuring and information management to building an ecosystem for electric mobility.” In Kathmandu the government does not support or subsidise public transport, which are run by over 55 private operators and the semi-government Sajha Yatayat. &nbsp; The government does regulate bus fares, and the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) issues driving licenses and route permits, but it is regarded as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/green-sticker-green-light-to-pollute">a snake pit of corruption</a>. The Department of Roads is more interested in building roads than managing public transport.&nbsp; Since the 1990s there have been over 15 studies on public transport in Kathmandu Valley, but zero results. The proposals range from a fanciful underground metro, impractical overhead cable cars, or trams and light rail transit. But experts at a regional symposium on public transport this week organised by Sajha Yatayat point to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) modelled after Bogota’s transformative TransMilenio as the best mass mobility strategy for Kathmandu and other cities. A BRT uses high-capacity articulated buses on dedicated lanes and elevated subway-style stations with priority passage at intersections for uninterrupted commutes in traffic-clogged cities. The main advantage of BRT systems is that they are more reliable and convenient than current bus routes, they are cheaper than trains to build, and help reduce traffic and air pollution, especially if the buses are electric. Besides Bogota, BRT serves cities like Jakarta and Istanbul. According to former senior superintendent of Police Jagatman Shrestha there are 163 public transport routes in Kathmandu Valley while there are 495 big buses plying just on the 27.2km Ring Road.&nbsp; Of the 1.8 million registered vehicles in Kathmandu Valley, only 3% of them are public vehicles. Most of them are two-wheelers, and they are a major contributor to odourless and toxic gases like carbon monoxide and ozone. A high frequency and reliable rapid bus transit system in Kathmandu would encourage commuters to use public transport and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/cleaner-air-longer-lives-0z0okfeu?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1JZUEgX9b2uisUuzw6u9APT1Pq7E8zupyJA13VJuq01nKe3sWdFTkeL5M_aem_2Fz7QRnCnd8mOX3kADDC9Q">improve air quality and public health</a>. Tax incentives to convert diesel buses to electric would make public transport even cleaner and greener. The government has proven that it can be done with the tax rebates on smaller electric vehicles, and similar incentives could transform public transport in Kathmandu and other cities. ---  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250328090336_d21eb7c0325aa90b6c473393050bb21cb60ee3205055f5e46b5b51e84d5b2c5f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250328090336_d21eb7c0325aa90b6c473393050bb21cb60ee3205055f5e46b5b51e84d5b2c5f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1520" height="2500" loading="lazy" alt="energy and climate crisis"> <figcaption>HIGH TENSION: Transmission line in Tehrathum that will evacuate electricity from several new hydropower plants in the Arun basin in eastern Nepal. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Prominent signs along the BP Highway from Kathmandu to eastern Nepal announce electric vehicle fast-charging stations every few kilometres on some stretches. On routes like Kathmandu-Dharan, or Kathmandu-Bardibas, there were as many electric public vans as there were petrol ones. Every few private car was a battery-powered BYD or Nexon.&nbsp; Indeed, 75% of new car sales last year in Nepal were electric, and the country was only behind Norway where EVs now make up 90% of total sales. The encouraging part of this is that it is not just private cars that have gone electric, but also public vehicles like vans and three wheelers. But instead of building on this trend by announcing tax rebates for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/potholes-on-the-highway-to-nepal-s-ev-future">bigger battery-powered buses</a>, Nepal Rastra Bank last month increased the ‘Loan-to-Value (LTV) Ratio’ for electric vehicle financing to 40%, up from 20%. Insiders see this as a calculated move to appease the diesel and petrol vehicle lobby.&nbsp; The history of electric transportation in Nepal has often been one step forward and two steps back as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/1-step-forward-2-steps-back-in-nepal">governments have flip-flopped on incentives</a>. Nepal was making progress to achieve its own target of making 20% of all vehicles on the roads electric by this year, but heftier down payments on car loans is not going to help. The government works at cross purposes with itself, undermining its own authority and with no clear strategy to implement its own green transport goal of ensure that 90% of all private vehicles and 60% of public transport will be battery powered by 2030. “This is a regressive move which will have people reverting to diesel and petrol vehicles, it will especially hurt electric e-buses and e-vans,” says urban planner Bhushan Tuladhar of the Rastra Bank down payment policy revision. “Electric buses are already much more expensive than similar size diesel ones, but increased down payment means some private operators who were planning to bring electric buses are rethinking their decision.” Meanwhile, Thee Go SriBiT which is behind Nepal’s best-selling electric micro van ‘TheeGo’ has a rental solution for both passenger and cargo vehicles for short trips and long-term leases which can help potential businesses bypass Rastra Bank’s revised loan down payment ratio. It also provides vehicles under a leasehold model for low-income customers. The sale of private electric cars has soared in Nepal, and this has reduced <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/cleaner-air-with-greener-buses">air pollution</a> and petroleum imports to some extent, but there would be much bigger advantage to encouraging diesel bus operators to go electric while benefiting more people. Fewer people can afford electric cars, and their increase has added to traffic congestion in Kathmandu’s city core. &nbsp; Nepal’s installed capacity for electricity has now crossed 3,000MW, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/hydrocarbon-to-hydropower">although the generation is nearly a third of that at present</a> due to low water level in rivers. During the monsoon, however, there is surplus electricity even after exporting to India and some of the energy is wasted due to low domestic consumption. Energy experts have recommended increasing domestic demand, starting with more rapid electrification of public transport so that it reduces petroleum imports from India, and improve Nepal’s balance of trade. The added benefit would be better air quality that will increase the average lifespan of Kathmandu’s residents. One 42-seater bus can replace about 19 private cars or 35 motorcycles on the road. And if that bus is electric, the benefit is multiplied. There are operators running electric buses and vans on 16 routes: 40 buses, and 258 micro vans, with 355 more on the way. There are 10 EV inter-city routes in which 62 buses and vans are electric-powered. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250328090340_916c254bba5237f366bc5c9859298a6b5128752c06b1c2454c4aad151c804a7a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250328090340_916c254bba5237f366bc5c9859298a6b5128752c06b1c2454c4aad151c804a7a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1017" height="902" loading="lazy" alt="proposed bus routes for Kathmandu"> </figure>  Lack of state investment or subsidy is the main reason behind the limited growth of electric public transport. That makes it much cheaper to buy diesel buses. In China, all the city buses are already electric while India adopted the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) in 2015 and is now in its second phase.&nbsp; In 2024, there were 3,616 electric buses in India, with the government planning to add 50,000 more by 2027. “The initial cost of electric buses is very high, and not all governments have that kind of money,” said Alok Jain, international Nepali export on public transport (see profile, right). “But those that have done the transition know that the total cost of ownership of EV is actually cheaper, whatever you pay upfront you recover quickly and you make a profit because operating and maintenance costs are much lower.” Most young people in Kathmandu have no memory of the Chinese-donated <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-bhaktapur-trolley-bus">Kathmandu-Bhaktapur trolley bus service</a> which was way ahead of its time when it started in 1975. There were 22 electric buses covering the 13km distance one way, and carried up to 10,000 passengers daily. The line was operated by the Nepal Trolley Bus Service, a branch of the Nepal Transportation Corporation (NTC). However, government bureaucracy, overstaffing and cronyism led to deteriorating service. Private bus operators were rumoured to have a hand in wrecking the electric trolley bus service.&nbsp; NTC was dissolved in 2001, and the trolley bus operations were halted in 2009. The rusting hulks of the buses can still be seen at the trolley terminal in New Baneswar which is now occupied by a government agency. After Sajha Yatayat was revived, it started plying trunk routes in Kathmandu Valley and 40 buses in its fleet are battery powered. The company is planning to add 100 new electric buses with a government-to-government grant from China.&nbsp; The Chinese company CHTC KINWIN in Nanjing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-journey-to-electric-public-transport">supplied the first 40 buses during the pandemic</a>, and will also be bidding for the new lot. Since the manufacturers had not seen Kathmandu’s road conditions which are different from ones in China, the buses had low clearance and could not be used on certain routes.&nbsp; “Since the first buses were sent here two years ago, we now have a lot of experience with Kathmandu’s road conditions, and we have also seen that the EV market is booming in Nepal,” says Zhu Xiansong, Director of Overseas Sales at CHTC KINWIN. &nbsp;&nbsp; Zhu adds: “Nepal was the biggest buyer of electric vehicles from China last year, and this country is definitely a viable market for China. We plan to hire Nepali technicians to work for us so that they can further promote our business as well as bring back to Nepal technical know-how to maintain electric vehicles.”&nbsp; The public transport symposium also heard that even if long range buses convert to battery power, the condition of national highways at present is so poor and road travel is so dangerous that most travellers are forced to gamble with their lives.&nbsp; This week alone, at least 12 people have died on Nepal’s highways. There is a spike in fatalities during the monsoon due to landslides and floods. Three buses were buried by a mudslide in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-it-rains-it-pours-ksqprbu3">Dhading last year</a> during September floods killing at least 35 people. Two intercity buses were swept down to the Trisuli River at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/100-101-102-hh5uvzf9">Simaltal</a> killing at least 60 people. The buses were never found.&nbsp; Haphazard engineering on steep slopes combined with reckless driving and poor vehicle maintenance are to blame. Highway accidents are now the major cause of death of young Nepalis — more than natural disasters and other diseases. Brett R C Molesworth, Professor at the School of Aviation in the University of New South Wales Sydney says that air transport safety practices should be seen as an exemplar when improving road safety. He says: “Over the past decade Nepal has made strides to improve its air safety, it is near the world average, it is just that plane crashes get so much more news coverage than road accidents ever do.”

Sonia Awale

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The public in public transport

Last month was a tragic reminder of just how unsafe travel in Nepal is, leading some experts to question if there is a mismatch between modern technology and a fatalistic culture. Dor Bahadur Bista tried to get to the bottom of this conundrum in 1991 in his seminal book, Fatalism and Development. It was an early attempt to see how an ‘everything goes’ attitude hindered <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepals-demographic-window-is-closing">Nepal's socio-economic progress</a>.&nbsp; Since then, others have struggled to explain why Nepalis do not adhere to mandatory safety standards in technologies ranging from electricity to gas cylinders, and in road and aviation safety.&nbsp; It has been 30 years since author Kedar Sharma published his book आधुनिकतासँग सावधान (Beware of Modernity) in which he warned that Nepalis had not kept pace with advanced technology. “It gives me no pleasure to say that, tragically, this is still the case,” says Sharma, referring to the loss of life in recurring highway and aviation disasters.&nbsp; “We are careless about following rules in all spheres of life,” adds Sharma. “And this is made worse by our faith in fate which lends to our tendency to be reckless. Roads were supposed to be synonymous with development, but are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-deadly-roads-take-their-toll">now synonymous with death</a>. The quality of roads plays a big role in accidents, but we are culturally, administratively and legally negligent about safety.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/underpasses-to-reduce-roadkill-in-nepal?fbclid=IwAR0KntTDqdjk2YwmtQyTSkgh8wjtidPqx4LUNukUpYyT9-9SNO1fXzOA5ns">Underpasses to reduce roadkill in Nepal</a>, Tufan Neupane There has been much debate about regulatory failure in aviation that underlies frequent air crashes, and this was brought to the fore in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/unsafe-skies">last week’s Saurya Airlines crash</a> at Kathmandu airport in which 18 people lost their lives. That crash got much more attention than the disaster on the Mugling highway in which two buses were swept into the Trisuli River by a mudslide, killing 59. An investigation showed the flood was caused by debris from a poorly engineered road up the mountain that was washed down by a torrential downpour at night. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/managing-the-monsoon">Managing the monsoon</a>, Ngamindra Dahal It is easy to blame accidents on Nepal’s terrain and weather, but there are deeper socio-cultural underpinnings that magnify these dangers. And the buck stops at the gate of government. There are other soft states like Nepal that also have harsh conditions, but do not suffer such frequent disasters.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240802050832_60c87a1a569467f65bab8cfe0f05766af368fc3cd5bbb3a934eb054e2abc3283.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240802050832_60c87a1a569467f65bab8cfe0f05766af368fc3cd5bbb3a934eb054e2abc3283" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="fatalism and fatalities NT"> <figcaption>Illustration: SUBASH RAI</figcaption> </figure>  The interface between technology and safety is not properly understood by most Nepalis: electric shocks and cooking gas disasters kill hundreds every year. There were 2,267 reported electrical accidents in the past five years, 60% of them fatal.&nbsp; More than 2,000 people died on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/highway-accidents-are-no-accident-in-nepal">Nepal’s roads and highways</a> in the past year, many times more than all natural disasters combined. “Accidents aren’t just accidents, they are linked to the governance of the country and reflect political failure,” says Vijay Lama, an A330 captain with Nepal Airlines. “We need serious, open and prolonged discussion between regulatory bodies, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/100-101-102-hh5uvzf9">service providers</a>, airline operators and pilots that look deep into the crux of the problem to come up with solutions.”&nbsp; Lama has been flying for nearly 40 years, logging 30,000 hours on various aircraft from Twin Otters and Boeing 757s to Airbuses.&nbsp; He says, “If flying is unsafe, I would be the first one to say so, but it is still the safest and most efficient mode of travel. Air crashes just get more media attention but after the news fades, we go back to doing what we did before.” The international community has taken note, mainly because their nationals are often involved. The European Commission (EC) has put all Nepal-based airlines on its <a href="https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/3195fabb-7575-4db9-85b9-ec5a77b481aa_en?filename=air-safety-list-2024-05-30_en.pdf">Air Safety List</a>, and the Saurya crash will surely hurt the chance of being taken off the list.&nbsp; One of the measures the EC has pushed is to separate the regulatory and operational functions of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). Successive governments have not shown the political will to do so, and some doubt bifurcating CAAN will help since political interference will persist.&nbsp; Indeed, after every crash, CAAN sets up an investigation committee that issues recommendations. There is strict compliance, but only for a while. &nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/keeps-happening">Read also: Keeps happening&nbsp;</a> Blame for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/60-years-of-living-dangerously">making travel dangerous</a> ultimately has to do with a political culture that has failed to prioritise safety even when the country’s international image is tarnished, affecting the tourism industry. &nbsp; “We should look at each crash as a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/why-missing-planes-are-so-difficult-to-find-in-nepal">systemic failure</a>,” explains Ajaya Dixit, whose physician father perished in a Pilatus PC-6 crash in 1962 sent to investigate a previous crash in Dhorpatan of a DC-3 flying to New Delhi from Kathmandu. Nepal’s ambassador to India and two high ranking US officials were among the 10 victims. &nbsp;&nbsp; He adds: “Modern technologies are all imported, they didn’t evolve in our society. We lack a larger technological ethos in their operation, management, maintenance. Our commitment to technological discipline is low, cutting corners is accepted.”&nbsp; Indeed, travel safety cannot be an island of efficiency when the entire <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/democracy-s-sidekicks">political machinery of the country</a> is dysfunctional. And like other sectors, there is a culture of impunity here too. Human rights campaigner Sushil Pyakurel sums it up: “No one is suspended after crashes. The bus accident is no one’s responsibility because a landslide caused it. Unless those responsible are held to account, accidents will keep happening, people will continue to die.” &nbsp;

Fatalism and fatalities

<figure><img width="1419" height="630" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3df9c7e80680e09667ajpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>FISHING OUT: Armymen try to pull out the bus that fell into the Madi River in Tanahu in 2013. Photo: PAWAN PAUDEL</figcaption></figure>At 5AM on 12 December 2019, residents of Khadichaur of Sindhupalchok district woke up to a loud crash. A bus had careened off a hairpin bend and plunged 500m down the mountain, killing 17 and wounding 18 passengers.They were pilgrims on the way back from the Kalinchok shrine. A little over a year later, the tragedy has become part of the deadly statistics of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/how-covid-19-saves-lives-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s highway accidents</a> in which an average of seven people die every day.“There was a pile of bodies, some with their limbs severed. I had never before seen such a horrendous sight,” recalls Mithu Mijar. “All we could do was help lift the bodies and place them in ambulances.”Tara Bahadur Karki is still traumatised by the sight, and cannot walk past the site without recalling that fateful day: “The entire slope was covered with bodies and there were more under the bus. After a while, we lost count, as we kept pulling them out of the wreckage.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqRS60ctCj4 <figure><img width="1500" height="844" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3e29c7e80680e09667bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Most of the accidents are preventable, and the causes are mainly poor road condition and reckless driving. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/its-an-emergency-nepal-needs-to-improve-trauma-care/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pandemic of highway accidents</a> kills as many Nepalis every year as all the natural disasters combined. In fact they are so common that most Nepalis are desensitised by the numbers. From July 2014-July 2019, there were a total of 54,000 road accidents in Nepal resulting in 12,000 deaths of people mostly in the age group 15-40 years. This number <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/how-covid-19-saves-lives-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">went down sharply during the Covid-19 lockdown</a>. Highway fatalities declined by half to less than 700 in March-August 2020, compared to the same period the previous year. By the Dasain-Tihar festival in November 2020, with restrictions removed, the number of deaths on the roads again spiked to 242 after falling to 52 in May. <figure><img width="1263" height="752" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3e49c7e80680e09667cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“In developing country like ours we have fewer accidents but more casualties because of our mass transport. But we often forget about those wounded, they are sentenced to a life of economic hardships and trauma beyond our imaginations,” says former Superintendent of Police Jagat Man Shrestha.On average, 40 people are injured on roads across the country each day.In 2019, there were nearly 13,000 highway and road accidents in which 2,736 people lost their lives and 10,731 were seriously injured. Those who survive often have a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/injured-use-internet-to-reach-physiotherapists/?preview_nonce=aefd82ecbe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries</a>, requiring long-term or life-long rehabilitative care. <figure><img width="1636" height="942" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3e79c7e80680e09667djpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Journalist Gajendra Budathoki was on his way home one rainy night when the blinding headlight of an oncoming bus from the wrong side at Bhadrakali turn caused his motorcyle to skid off the road. A spinal cord injury has paralysed him from the waist down. “I would never go faster than 50km/hour and my friends used to poke fun at me for being slower than a bicycle but now I’m forced to leave the rest of my life bound on a wheelchair,” he laments.According to the WHO Global Status on Road Safety 2018, only 8 in 100,000 people die of highway and road accidents in developed countries, but the number soars to 27.5 in low-income nations like Nepal.A Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport study has found that 76% of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-other-global-pandemic-road-fatalities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">highway accidents</a> are caused by drivers who do not follow traffic rules, or are speeding.“Tipper truck drivers get Rs1,000 per trip so they try to make as many roundtrips as possible. I have seen them make five per night, driving even as they doze off at the wheels. If they don’t kill people, who will?” asks the chief of Lalitpur Metropolitan Police Sitaram Hachhethu.Traffic police have now deployed speed guns to check speeding at the accident-prone Satdobato-Gwarko road. They penalise up to 100 commuters a day, many of them in motorcycles that are going at 90km/hour in the road with a speed limit of 50km/hour.  Road maintenance or lack thereof is another major cause of traffic accidents. Local governments need to wait for the budget to maintain road safety while the Department of Roads is unable to add crash barriers on highways.“Our roads are narrow, bad, and frankly not the kind we should have built,” accepts Arjun Thapa, head of the Department. “Priority on road construction without proper infrastructure planning is to blame.”Roads are synonymous with development in Nepal. Every election, politicians promise highways to boost their vote banks. There are <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/accident-prone-Mugling-Narayangadi-highway,3828" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">excavators clawing away at the mountains</a> all over the country. <figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3ea9c7e80680e09667ejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Says road safety analyst Kamal Panday: “Well-constructed roads prevent accidents, but we have made ours ignoring technical and engineering aspects because new roads bring in votes, and maintenance doesn’t.”All automobiles are subjected to mechanical inspection tests every six months, those that fail are not allowed on the streets. But testing centres across the country are not functional as vehicles are certified based on manual (visual) inspection alone.The design of vehicles can also factor in crucial life and death situations. For example, tipper truck drivers have blind spots on the sides which prevent them from seeing motorcyclists. Moreover, the bumpers of these heavy load vehicles is 1.5m above the ground making them lethal in a collision. Many countries including China, Brazil and Japan have now added 360degree cameras for tipper drivers.“Our tippers are not fit for highway and city traffic, their only purpose is to carry raw material from mines to construction site,” says Namraj Ghimire of the Department of Transport Management. <figure><img width="1536" height="850" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3ed9c7e80680e09667fjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>An important aspect when it comes to traumatic road traffic accidents is the transportation of the wounded to the hospitals without further aggravating their condition. “We have seen many cases of careless handling leading to unnecessary damage to the spine resulting into deaths,” says Raju Dhakal of the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre in Sangha.The traffic police and the Department of Transport Management are responsible for implementing rules and regulations. The Department of Roads has to build safe infrastructure. But when asked, they all pass the blame to each other. Traffic police complain that they do not have enough human resources. The Department of Roads states that most roads in Nepal are now under the purview of local governments. The Transport Service Department simply does not bother about vehicular inspections. <figure><img width="1400" height="1050" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110121140/636ce3f09c7e80680e096680jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It is therefore up to the public to make their voice heard, and make government agencies feel more responsible, says activist Anandaraj Joshi, who used to be a truck driver in Western Nepal. “Civil society, media and investigators must continue to pursue this issue, start a discourse to wake up the uncaring state and together eradicate this calamity from its roots,” Joshi says.There is a consensus among experts that the implementation of road engineering suited to the geography of the place and mechanical knowledge among drivers is crucial to reducing road accidents. Similarly, traffic education goes a long way in preventing road fatalities and must start at homes and schools.Says former SP Jagat Man Shrestha: “Traffic enforcement gives us a quick result but it will be temporary. To prevent as many road accidents as possible, we must revamp our education system and upgrade engineering.”

Anita Bhetwal

Nepal’s other pandemic: road fatalities

<figure><img width="1419" height="630" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb51a9c7e80680e07bbe3jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>FISHING OUT: Armymen try to pull out the bus that fell into the Madi River in Tanahu in 2013. Photo: PAWAN PAUDEL</figcaption></figure>The Covid-19 crisis has dominated news bulletins in Nepal for the last six months, and in the past week the headlines are about rising cases and fatalities. But what is missing from the news is that the pandemic has also helped save lives.Police statistics show that about 1,400 people were killed in Nepal in road traffic accidents between March-August 2019. This year, the figure dropped to 707 in the same period. Meanwhile, 390 people have died with Covid-19 across the country since the lockdowns began. In those six months last year, more than 5,000 people were seriously injured in highway accidents. This year, the number of wounded was down to 1,978 between March-August. Because of the pandemic, there are therefore far fewer trauma patients in hospitals, and many of them have been saved from lifelong physical disabilities.Besides lives saved in road traffic accidents studies have shown that improved air quality in the cities of north India during the lockdown has saved many thousands of lives.The <a href="https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CREA-Europe-COVID-impacts.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CREA-Europe-COVID-impacts.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600526831303000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEaep49FFrKVnsBp1buzFoFhtJbtQ">Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA)</a> estimates that improved air quality since Covid-19 has saved 15,000 lives in 12 of India’s big cities. In New Delhi alone, 4,600 people who may have died of acute respiratory distress have lived because of the cleaner air. A similar study in Nepal is not available, but since Kathmandu Valley’s air quality at certain times of day is as bad as New Delhi, and much of the suspended particulates from north India is carried by prevailing winds into Nepal in winter, there could also be a correlation here between improved health and better air quality during the lockdown. <img width="1402" height="780" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb51d9c7e80680e07bbe4jpeg.jpg" alt="">To be sure, the pandemic has led to other hardships, often adding to unnecessary fatalities. Many more women have died this year than in 2019 during the lockdown because they have not been able to get to hospital for delivery. Child mortality is similarly up 30% compared to pre-lockdown months because of delayed vaccinations, and parents unable to get sick children to hospital in time. Patients with chronic ailments have also been deprived of treatment. Jobs losses have increased hunger and susceptibility to disease.The dramatic drop in highway fatalities, however, reveals just how dangerous Nepal’s roads are, and has provided the government an opportunity to take concrete steps to improve road safety even as the government decided to allow long-distance buses to resume their services this week.The fact that 707 people were killed on Nepal’s roads even despite an almost complete ban on vehicular traffic in cities as well as on inter-district highways between March till August this year shows just goes on to show how deadly Nepal’s highways are. A paper in the <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2020/02/18/injuryprev-2019-043309" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2020/02/18/injuryprev-2019-043309&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1600526831303000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFw67kURQsjGTpdjwgy0yMJObRYPg">British Medical Journal</a> shows that even before the pandemic in 2017, transport injuries killed more young people in Nepal than from tuberculosis, malaria and HIV combined. Seven Nepalis died every day in road and highway accidents in Nepal before the lockdowns, and on average, 40 people were injured. Last year, there were nearly 13,000 road accidents in which 2,736 people lost their lives and 10,731 were seriously injured.But at the same time, Covid-19 has seen rapid spread in the past weeks. Nepal registered the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday with 2,020 new cases out of 11,158 PCR tests conducted across the country, Kathmandu Valley alone accounted for 859 positive SARS-CoV-2 cases, also the highest so far. But the last 24 hours also saw 871 people returning home after a successful treatment, bringing the total recoveries to 43,820 and the recovery rate to 71%, up from 55% in August. Nepal now has 17,383 active cases.While the government has decided to further relax the lockdown by allowing domestic airlines to operate, hotels and restaurants to reopen and intercity bus services to resume, the odd-even rule for vehicles is still in force. <figure><img width="640" height="480" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110915118/636bb51f9c7e80680e07bbe5jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Wreckage of the bus accident in Dhankuta in 2016 that killed 15 people, including ex-Minister of State for Finance Hari Khewa.</figcaption></figure>This could help contain the spread of Covid-19 somewhat, but it will keep traffic accidents and fatalities low -- especially during the monsoon when roads are even more treacherous in the mountains with additional risk of landslides and flash floods.  Highway accidents are now among the biggest killer in Nepal, right after heart diseases, diabetes, tuberculosis and renal ailments. Age-adjusted death rate at 21% is among some of the highest in the world.The cause of accidents in Nepal is usually carelessness and speeding, and poorly-maintained roads and vehicles. The number of accidents is rising faster than the increase in the number of vehicles.Those who survive often have traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, requiring long-term or life-long expensive rehabilitative care, available in only few institutions in Nepal and in limited capacity.

How Covid-19 saves lives in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101152/636b78c99c7e80680e0646bejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>Nearly 2,800 people were killed on Nepal’s roads in the past year: that averages at seven fatalities per day. No data is available for the number of people who suffer such accidents, but thousands are injured seriously enough to be disabled for life. Yet, this <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-road-kill,621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pandemic of road accidents</a> gets much less media attention than COVID-19.Actress and model Mahima Silwal was headed to Chitwan for her wedding  along with her sister Sharmila on 12 February when their scooter was hit by a speeding bus. Mahima was pronounced dead at a nearby clinic. Her sister later died in a Kathmandu hospital.On 26 February CPN-ML General Secretary C P Mainali and several of his family members were injured in a car crash near Bardibas. On 2 March, former Constituent Assembly member Dharma Prasad Ghimire was killed in a crash in Bagdogra of India.News of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bus crashes and traffic accidents</a> do not even make it to the news line-up of the mainstream media anymore, unless they are celebrities. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yet the numbers killed</a> on Nepal’s roads in the past ten years exceeds the total 17,000 who died during the armed conflict. In fact, road traffic accidents ranked as the number one cause of death among children between 5 and 14 years of age in Nepal.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/when-panic-goes-viral/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When panic goes viral</a>, Editorial“There has been a big expansion of new roads, but unfortunately highway infrastructure and road discipline enforcement have not kept pace. We need to work on implementation day-by-day,” Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Basanta Kumar Nembang told Nepali Times in Stockholm while attending the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety here.Along with 140 countries attending the conference, Nepal committed to meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) goal to halve the number of road fatalities by 2030. According to the WHO’s own statistics, at least 7,000 people were killed worldwide during the two days of the conference – whereas the total known fatalities due to COVID-19 in the past two months was 4,635 as of Thursday.The WHO was holding the Stockholm conference even while the coronavirus was spreading out of China to the rest of the world, but road traffic accidents have long been an endemic cause of mortality and morbidity the world over. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Stockholm that it was “an outrage” that so many people were dying on the world’s roads every day.“Most road traffic deaths and injuries can be prevented, using tried and tested strategies, and everyone should be a part of the solution,” he told the gathering. But even as the conference came to a close on 20 February, the issue was already being eclipsed by the worldwide coverage of the COVID-19 spread.Since then, there have been at least 150 deaths on Nepal’s roads – mainly from overcrowded jeeps falling off poorly-built mountain roads, or buses overspeeding on highways <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-nepal-highways,622">lacking basic safety features</a> like centreline guard-rails. In the cities, 90% of fatalities involve motorcyclists or pedestrians, indicating poor safety enforcement and low awareness.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal's deadly roads take their toll</a>, Gopal GartaulaWHO says the fatality rate is highest in low- and middle-income South Asian countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Poor countries account for 93% of highway fatalities in the world.The United Nations observed 2011-2020 as a Global Decade on Road Safety, proposing to stabilise road traffic deaths and injuries around the world. There were mixed results, with partial success in ensuring better legislation, safer roads and vehicles, mandatory use of helmets and seatbelts. and reduced speeds.The <a href="#1001 March 13datairap.orgabout-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Road Assessment Programme</a> is trying to raise awareness by rating roads by their safety records, and by giving ‘vaccines for roads’ to increase safety features. But very little of the infrastructure promoted by the program exist on Nepal’s roads, most of which are rated only one star out of five. Haphazard road construction in the past decade has not just disfigured the countryside with landslides, but also increased the rate of accidents.More than 200 children were killed on Sweden’s roads every year in the 1970s, but that figure now hovers at about 15. Opening the conference, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf said there were tested ways of saving lives.“Road safety should now be linked to other sustainability challenges, such as global health, climate change, equality, poverty and human rights,” the king said.There are now nearly 2.4 million vehicles on Nepal’s roads, and a majority of them are two-wheelers, with 800,000 motorcycles in Kathmandu Valley alone. As the number of vehicles increases, so will the fatality rate.Puspa Raj Pant, a Nepali researcher at the University of West of England in  Bristol, is concerned about the lack of pedestrian crossings, cycle lanes and traffic signals in Nepal as well as lights or crash barriers along winding mountain roads.“We have vaccines to fight killer diseases, but no medicines to reduce road fatalities,” he said. “Education, improved infrastructure and safer vehicles hold the key to improving road safety.”

The other global pandemic: road fatalities

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101136/636b74e99c7e80680e0623bcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3600" height="2400"/><figcaption>Nepali students on their way to the quarantine centre in Bhaktapur after landing in Kathmandu Airport on Sunday morning. Photo: RSS</figcaption></figure>The global public health crisis caused by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/why-nepal-must-watch-about-coronavirus-but-not-panic/">the 2019 novel coronavirus </a>has  hospitalised tens of thousands and killed hundreds of people, wrecked tourism in the Asia-Pacific region, impacted civil aviation and slowed down the world economy.An <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/07/coronavirus-chinese-rage-death-whistleblower-doctor-li-wenliang">attempt by the Chinese authorities to suppress</a> first reports from Wuhan is blamed for the initial rise in case load, and its dissemination across China and the world. But it is also China’s willingness to quarantine a whole province that is stopping its spread.The epidemic has also exposed the challenges to containment in <a href="v">the age of social media</a>. Rumours and conspiracy theories resulting in stigmatisation and xenophobia have become the norm in a global village interconnected instantaneously by internet-based apps.The media’s habit of magnifying the negative is now exacerbated by the split-second reach of individual posts, click-baits, fake news, and the chain-reaction through shares and likes over web platforms.Till Wednesday, 2,012 people had died from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/a-nepali-in-beijing-during-coronavirus-scare/">the Wuhan virus</a>, and 75,227 are hospitalised. These statistics are constantly updated in the media, with countries where it has spread shaded ominously on a world map – giving the impression that it has spread globally.Yet there are very few mentions anywhere that nearly 15,000 infected people have made full recovery, or that the fatality rate for the virus is a low 2%. Even though no one has yet died in the United States from this virus strain, there is saturation coverage in the media that likens the epidemic to the one in the Hollywood thriller Contagion. Few compare Covid-19 to the common flu that killed nearly 35,000 people in the United States last winter.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101136/636b74eb9c7e80680e0623bdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1800" height="1291"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The psychology of terror, irrationality of panic, and fear of diseases without cure are not new. What is new this time is mobile communication which allows panic about the virus to go viral.In Nepal, too, the media was obsessed with the plight of 182 students trapped in Hubei province. The issue was politicised by those opposed to Prime Minister Oli’s government – both within his NCP and without. Media gave prominence to tearful parents, highlighted a letter to the prime minister about his callousness and disregard. Under pressure already for non-performance, the government found <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-from-hubei-quarantined-in-bhaktapur/">the evacuation of the students to a quarantine camp</a> in Bhaktapur a convenient way to show-case action.If only the government reacted with similar efficiency to other, much more serious, national emergencies like Nepal’s unacceptably high maternal mortality rate. Although there has been a steep drop in the number of women who die in childbirth from 900 per 100,000 in 1990 to 239 today, Nepal has <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/federalism-leaves-nepals-medical-sector-ailing/">missed the target</a> of reducing that number to 125 this year. It does not look like we will hit the SDG goal of 75 by 2030, either.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/who-will-save-nepals-poor-new-mothers/">More than 1,200 women die</a> in child birth every year in Nepal, that is three every day. Most of these are easily preventable either by ensuring proper nutrition, enforcing the ban on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/child-marriage-in-nepal-eloped-at-13-mother-by-17/">child marriage</a>, ensuring access to ultrasound machines to detect complications in time, and encouraging institutional delivery.As Buddha Basnyat of the Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS) comments, it is only political will that is stopping Nepal from adopting the game-changer drug Tranexamic acid (TXA) in the treatment of post-partum haemorrhage, (PPH) the most common cause of maternal death. There is a huge 44% <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-far-from-hitting-contraceptive-target/">unmet need for contraceptives</a>, which is leading to unwanted pregnancies and preventing a further drop in Nepal’s total fertility rate.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/tb/">Tuberculosis</a> kills 6,000 people in Nepal every year, and every other Nepali is a carrier of the bacillus, which means half the population should actually be quarantined. Yet the health system is supremely unconcerned, and the public is not aware of the risk.There were 2,736 fatalities in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-deadly-roads-take-their-toll/">road traffic accidents</a> in Nepal last year. Yet, even though the coronavirus has not killed anyone and there has been only one suspected case, Nepalis are hoarding supplies of masks and hand sanitisers. Meanwhile, vehicles continued to be driven recklessly over precarious roads. Where is the outrage?<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking/">Air pollution</a> in Kathmandu Valley, Chitwan and the Tarai is so bad that it is making many people die prematurely, reducing our lifespans by 3.5 years. Where is the peoples’ anger at having their lives cut short? It is ironic that residents of Kharipati are more worried about Nepali students from Wuhan being quarantined in their neighbourhood, than about the toxic fumes emitted by dozens of brick kilns nearby.To be sure, we cannot afford to be complacent when it comes to new epidemics like <a href="v">Covid-19</a>. However, it is the neglect of easily preventable diseases that kills more people in Nepal -- most often poor people in rural communities. We need a robust health system that prioritises primary health care, trains medical professionals, and builds a well-equipped infrastructure to handle future epidemics.But that does not make it into the news.Sonia Awale

When panic goes viral

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22ff9c7e80680e0417c1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"/><figcaption>Photos: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure><ul><li>At least seven people were killed when a bus heading to Narayangad from Beni lost control and fell 70m from the road down to the Kali Gandaki River in Kusma Municipality of Parbat district on Thursday.</li> <li>A bus plunge from a crumbling highway in Tulsipur last month killed 22 and maimed 15 -- most of them students and teachers from a technical school in Ghorahi on a field trip.</li> <li>A mini truck skidded off a dirt tract in Nuwakot and plunged several hundred meters in Dupcheshwar rural municipality on 14 December, killing 22 out of the 40 on board the lorry. The passengers were returning home to Sisipu after performing funeral rites for a fellow villager.</li> <li>In just one day that week, Devi Prasad Rai of Kerabari in Morang lost his life when a bus hit him near a fuel station. Dhan Prasad Giri, 63, and his 29-year-old son were killed by an Indian-registered truck. Nirmala Karki of Gauradaha of Jhapa was hit by a school bus and died.</li></ul><iframe id="datawrapper-chart-PxGlE" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PxGlE/1/" height="549" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>In the past five months alone, 1,176 people have been killed across Nepal in what police call ‘road traffic accidents’ (RTA). This is an increase from last year, and with more vehicles driven by negligent drivers on poorly-built roads, fatalities have <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gone up sharply in the past decade</a>.The district-wise data of total fatalities from 16 July 2017 were collected by a Nepali Times team over two days this week, and shows that the majority of road traffic mishaps have occured in crowded urban areas in the Tarai and Kathmandu Valley. But even Dolpo has had three serious accidents, killing 20 since the first roads were built four years ago.In the last 10 years, 22,461 lost their lives in RTA, according to Nepal Police. While most were men, women made up 3,577 of the fatalities, and of the total, 2,440 were men and women below 18 years of age.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/traffic-accidents-continue-to-increase-worryingly-in-Nepal,2799" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Road kill</a>, Surendra Phuyal<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/accident-prone-Mugling-Narayangadi-highway,3828" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unblocking an artery</a>, Sanjeev SharmaPolice records blame 95% of accidents in Nepal on negligence of drivers. Mechanical failure, poor road condition, careless pedestrians and bad weather accounted for the rest. However, even though over-speeding, over-loading are major causes, the number of accidents caused by poor road maintenance, and the presence of animals and pedestrians on highways are probably under-reported.This means the blame ultimately goes to lax Police monitoring, and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/traffic-accidents-continue-to-increase-worryingly-in-Nepal,2799" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government apathy</a> in completing road construction and maintaining minimum safety standards.The Department of Transport Management, the governing body responsible for safe and reliable transportation does not even seem to acknowledge that road safety is its responsibility, taking an ‘accidents happen’ attitude.<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-gIV87" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gIV87/1/" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><iframe id="datawrapper-chart-espux" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/espux/6/" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><iframe id="datawrapper-chart-ED7Lj" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important;" src="//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ED7Lj/2/" height="393" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>There is no effort to enforcing and implementing existing laws to ensure safety, and none of the officials interviewed for this article appeared to recognise that the rising number of road traffic accidents was a national emergency that needed a strategy for mitigation.Article 257 of the Vehicle and Transport Management Act 1993 authorised the Department of Transport Management to appoint transport supervisors to fine or seize driving license of individuals violating traffic rules.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/cartel-carnage-highway,3243" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Highways of death</a>, Santa Gaha Magar<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/maps-showing-increase-in-road-accident-fatality-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">6 years of road traffic accidents</a>, Sunir PandeyBut 26 years on, not a single transport supervisor has been appointed. Article 67 of the Act also clearly states that the co-drivers also need to obtain licenses from the Department, but none has been issued so far, admits Tirtha Khanal, head of the Vehicle Monitoring and Provincial Coordination Division.“We are a small five-person office. It is impossible for us to monitor such a huge number of vehicles in Nepal,” said Khanal. There are more than 3.2 million motorcycles, cars and trucks registered across Nepal and the figure is growing exponentially.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101136/636a23029c7e80680e0417c2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1050"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The Act further states that all vehciles must have passed pollution tests and possess a vehicle inspection report, and drivers are required to take a half-an-hour of break after four hours on the road. Passenger vehicles are also restricted from carrying more people than the total number of seats, and long-distance vehicles should have two drivers with change in shift after 6 hours.In March 2018, the government amended the Vehicle and Transport Management Rules and banned buses older than 20 years. But eight months later, these polluting old vehicles are still on the roads.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/lack-of-trauma-centres-along-nepal%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s-highways-worsened-fatality-rate,1383" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Highways of death</a>, Sunir Pandey<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-road-kill,621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Road kill</a>, Duncan MaruThe Department of Transport Management spent Rs60 million to build the Vehicle Fitness Test Centre in Teku in April 2017. Built to originally conduct a complete health check-up of vehicles including emissions, and condition of brakes, chassis, headlights, spring balance and wheel load, most of the testing equipment do not work and the tests cannot be carried out.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101136/636a23059c7e80680e0417c3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800">“At the moment we are only able to do emission tests, and fasten loose bolts, most of the equipment do not work and we don’t have plans to repair it anytime soon either,” says Chief Engineer Ramchandra Paudel bluntly, as if it is no one’s responsibility. There are no vehcole test stations outside Kathmandu Valley.The only good news is that the number of drink driving cases and fatalities caused by them have gone down significantly in Kathmandu Valley. Called ‘MaPaSe’ by its Nepali acronym, the Police’s campaign against driving under the influence of alcohol has saved thousands of lives since 2012.  Between July 2017- June 2018 there were 32,234 men and 58 women drivers who failed breath analyser tests.On a daily basis, 1,500 traffic police officers work to manage the traffic in Kathmandu Valley and in the last five months they penalised 185,436 individuals for violating traffic rules -- 1,236 per day. Similarly, 472,407 vehicle drivers and owners were fined in the last fiscal year.A whopping 3 million people have been penalised for violating various traffic rules in the last 5 years and this has resulted in the government earning more than Rs1.238 billion.

Nepal’s deadly roads take their toll

Architecture can be a powerful agent of change, shaping not just spaces but the way people live, connect, and experience the world.&nbsp; For Nepal, which is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/natures-fragile-gift-to-nepal">gifted by nature</a> and rich in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/ambassador-fund-cultural-preservation-nepal,2092">cultural heritage</a>, &nbsp;reviving rural architecture with modern amenities could hold the key to more <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-sustainable-tourism-means-in-practice">sustainable tourism </a>that benefits local people more. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/bayalpata-hospital-in-nepal-wins-global-design-award">Design and architecture</a> are amazing tools to create a unique experience for visitors,” says Spanish architect Tomeu Esteva of Esteva i Esteva Architecture Studio. “Difficult destinations have beautiful hotels with design and comfort.” Esteva was in Kathmandu with his colleagues at an event organised by the Spanish Honorary Consulate at Dwarika’s Hotel last week to showcase buildings which Nepali architects can adapt with local material and design inputs.&nbsp; Rural architecture holds a unique significance: it is more than a shelter and must reflect <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/inking-an-idenity">local identity, culture</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-humla-from-heritage-loss">heritage</a>. An area’s natural and cultural harmony can be upset by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-protected-areas-from-infrastructure?fbclid=IwAR1wK0MDFlFST_2EYb3f54LS4-fPt6rYfLG1DJ1JaQsU3w8-ezyXIxGOqzk">poorly planned development</a>, speakers at the event said, but the environment can be improved and revitalised by well-integrated structures.&nbsp; Another Spanish architect, Belen Moneo, has designed hotels at elevations of 3,700m in her home country Spain that supply natural spring water spas. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/lost-in-reconstruction">Creativity in construction</a> must be encouraged. Rural architecture always shows possibilities of what we can do better,” Moneo explains, adding that designs must enhance <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-healing-power-of-nature">the beauty of nature</a> and give a natural feel at a time when steel, glass and cement dominate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rebuilding-kathmandu-after-the-1934-quake">urban design</a>.&nbsp; This is why the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/weaving-nature-into-craft">use of natural products</a> such as bamboo, local timber, straw and rammed earth are in demand from customers who want a fresh eco-friendly look encouraged in construction of rural architectural structures. The demand for boutique hotels has increased world over, with &nbsp;more and more tourists favouring aesthetics, experience and comfort over price. While creativity is an important part of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/architecture-for-mountains">construction and architecture</a>, incentives to build and use <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Building,370">rural construction materials</a> still remain minimal, and Moneo emphasises the significance of design and execution.&nbsp; Esteva helped design the Vana Retreat in Dehradun that kept the natural environment in focus, with the structure giving an elaborate aesthetic experience to visitors. Another example is Hotel Las Mercedes in the Dominican Republic which was designed and constructed by Moneo and the company she co-founded Moneo Brock, respecting and revaluing the traditional architecture of the area. Hotels providing such experience could attract tourists and revenue. The Spanish ambassador to Nepal Juan Antonio March Pujol said, “The role of architecture and architects in developing tourism is crucial, not only in urban areas but rural settings as well.”&nbsp; The concept of rural boutique hotels gained traction in Spain during the 1990s, particularly in regions like Majorca with economic and environmental sustainability as the main focus. In Nepal <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/12-full-opinion/guiding-nepal-s-tourism-industry">the tourism industry</a> directly employs about 1 million people, and makes up about 8% of the country’s GDP. In Nepal, the stone homes of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/reviving-himalayan-vulture-and-culture">Mustang and Manang</a>, bamboo and mud structures of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">the Tarai</a>, and the Kathmandu Valley’s terra cotta tile skylines, graceful temples, and tranquil bahal courtyards are all examples of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-traditional-seismic-resistant-designs">Nepal’s traditional architecture</a>.&nbsp; Nepali architect Sarosh Pradhan has been working for the past eight years on the Brakka Village project in Manang Valley north of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/municipalities-want-to-manage-annapurna">the Annapurnas</a>. Other examples of this kind of rural architecture for high-end tourism are the Shinta Mani Hotel in Mustang and Khumbu Lodge below <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a>. Says Pradhan, “There are places in Nepal that radiate purity and embrace simplicity. Creating projects in such settings require deep reflection and thoughtful planning.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421030444_a07a23f6b60fa89c0f35b9dc1aaf19937da4881e6bfb2e1858f3c27dff91729f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250421030444_a07a23f6b60fa89c0f35b9dc1aaf19937da4881e6bfb2e1858f3c27dff91729f" data-rendition-name="original" width="4608" height="2184" loading="lazy" alt="A new architecture for Nepal's tourism"> </figure>  Rural architecture is not easy, and sometimes more expensive. Inflation, energy efficiency, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/those-who-stay">the climate crisis</a>, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">increased costs of living</a> pose obstacles to sustainable rural architecture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/forgotten-international-starchitects-in-nepal">Forgotten international starchitects in Nepal</a>, Anne Feenstra and Varun S Bapu Esteva says faith and trust between client and architect is necessary for any project to be successful. He adds that architects must practice being humble, the process of designing always involves learning and not imposing their ideas on clients. Nepal is uniquely positioned for the growth of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hiking-up-the-benefits-of-tourism">rural tourism</a> because of its stunning countryside as well as its internationally renowned traditions in holistic wellness. Creating infrastructure that is small, thoughtfully planned and that respects both tradition and contemporary hospitality standards is crucial. “Projects in Nepal can be made cost effective by using materials from houses that have been brought down,” says Esteva. “Pilot projects involving <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/local-government-by-the-people-for-the-people-of-the-people">local people </a>and simple designing also helps the process.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/vacant-homes-become-homestays-in-nepal">The growth of homestays in Nepal</a> is a step in the right direction, but they are still a bit too rustic for the international traveller who also wants comfort and is willing to pay extra for it. Upgrading the facilities in homestays and ensuring that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-archive-of-nepali-heritage">architectural heritage</a> of the locality is preserved using locally sourced building material could allow owners to charge more. Says Sangita Shrestha of Dwarika’s Hotel, “Our effort is to build upon rural architecture by empowering local communities and using what is available locally. We can fine tune and encourage indigenous design and training.” The vision goes beyond just boosting the economy, it is about building a future where tourism helps villages grow in a healthy and lasting way. Instead of using up resources, it gives back to the land and the people. It supports local communities by<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/staying-in-nepal-to-create-jobs"> creating jobs</a>, improving infrastructure, and protecting natural beauty. When done right, tourism can be a tool for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/progress-and-or-preservation">preserving culture and nature</a>, not harming them. Architects must therefore see their work as more than just designing buildings, they also need to care deeply about people and places, especially in rural areas that can benefit the most.&nbsp; With global interest in sustainable and off-the-beaten-path travel increasing, Nepal stands at the cusp of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">tourism transformation</a> that values community-driven, eco-conscious hospitality. A mix of modern ideas and traditional knowledge could transform rural tourism in Nepal. Says Shrestha, “Young architects should spend time with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/the-unsung-heroes-of-conservation">local and indigenous communities</a>, listen to their stories, and learn from their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/life-and-livelihood-in-remote-nepal">ways of living</a>. These communities have deep knowledge about the land, materials, and climate. If this wisdom is used in new designs, it can help create tourism spaces that truly benefit everyone.” &nbsp;

A new architecture for Nepal's tourism

Extract from an addendum to Nepal's Two Wars, Chapter 2 in the updated edition of Essays on Nepal: Past and Present by Sam Cowan, a retired British Army general with a long association with the Gurkhas. The book was first published in 2018, and republished earlier this month by FinePrint exclusively on Amazon. The addendum details a one-to-one conversation the author had in the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8884">Royal Palace </a>with the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">King Gyanendra</a> in November 2002 just after he had taken his initial steps on the road that ultimately led to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14681">the abolition of the monarchy</a> in Nepal in 2008. In the early evening of September 16, 2002, in my role as Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas, I had my second and last official audience with King Gyanendra to give him an update on the Brigade’s activities over the previous 12 months. I had some 6 or 7 such audiences with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/preserving-king-birendra-s-family-home">King Birendra</a>.&nbsp; These were official affairs with the British ambassador of the day present, along with key <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12233">palace officials</a> and a representative from Nepal's Foreign Ministry. The two monarchs were very different in character and temperament, but both treated me with the utmost civility and made the audiences as relaxed and easy for me as possible.&nbsp; It is, however, worth recording that when the official business had been covered, King Birendra, with a twinkle in his eye, often ended by asking, “Now General, what’s the gossip in London?” The second audience with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8026">King Gyanendra </a>was my last official act in uniform. We came back to Kathmandu in the first week of November (after treks) to stay for a few nights with our Defence Attaché before heading back to the UK. Waiting for me was a message from the Palace saying that King Gyanendra would like to meet me informally: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6933">no uniform</a> and no ambassador.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080420_f9046f9882d4481781d14f2b64f18c7fbbea62562e1d74e3465de6d01fb43750.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250421080420_f9046f9882d4481781d14f2b64f18c7fbbea62562e1d74e3465de6d01fb43750" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="2406" loading="lazy" alt="Gyanendra crowned page 1"> <figcaption>Nepali Times Special Edition of 6-14 June 2001 with enthronement of Gyanendra. </figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_21333d6ae21828eb47fe3f849438d215fe2804460d47bb2896ef4aee4e895ad2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250421080424_21333d6ae21828eb47fe3f849438d215fe2804460d47bb2896ef4aee4e895ad2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1857" loading="lazy" alt="Royal massacre"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 22-29 June 2001 covering the royal massacre after which Gyanendra became king. </figcaption> </figure>  Although I had no idea what the purpose of the meeting might be, events in Kathmandu since I last saw the king put me on edge. On October 4, 2002, Gyanendra had dismissed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, allegedly for failing to hold <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/what-goes-on-in-nepal-s-elections">elections</a>. He had put in place a new prime minister and a cabinet personally selected by him. When I heard the news on my travels, the people I met were generally supportive of the king’s actions. There was a general view that something had to be done, the country was going nowhere, and the king deserved his chance, not least to solve<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/14-years-after-conflict-no-closure-in-nepal"> the Maoist </a>problem. Back in Kathmandu, views were not so sanguine. The chosen prime minister, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, was a relic from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/mob-movement-and-mayhem">the Panchayat period</a> whose party had failed to win a single seat in the last elections held in 1999. Some of the chosen cabinet ministers had, to put it mildly, dubious reputations, and others had no record of proven competence in any field. There was a fear that the king’s real motive in dismissing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/deubas-denouement">Deuba</a> was to start to reverse the democratic gains made since 1990. I informed <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-britain-mark-centenary-of-1923-treaty">the British ambassador</a> about the invitation. He was strongly against accepting it, which was probably the clinching reason for my decision to do the polite thing and accept it. On the evening of November 7, 2002, I presented myself at the royal palace, alone and in civilian attire.&nbsp; As in the past, the Military Secretary, Major General Vivek Shah, met and escorted me into the presence of the monarch. This time, however, he was politely asked to leave the room and shut the door behind him. King Gyanendra greeted me warmly and invited me to sit down.&nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal"> The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_e382af945d0ad2a04ae41fabe5393f793dd10f54cb1220f111c7c9e7423eb558.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250421080424_e382af945d0ad2a04ae41fabe5393f793dd10f54cb1220f111c7c9e7423eb558" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="993" loading="lazy" alt="Gyanendra coup"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 4-10 February 2005 after king Gyanendra's coup imposed media censorship. anendra became king. </figcaption> </figure>  I had wondered, and to be truthful, had worried, not just about the purpose of the meeting, but about how the conversation might start and develop. I reduced my resolve to two points: be polite but speak candidly. The latter resolve was quickly put to the test with the king’s opening words: “Sam, [in previous meetings it had been ‘General’, you walk the highways and byways of this land more than most, tell me what the common man is thinking?” &nbsp;“Your Majesty, I have no idea what they are thinking, but they are waiting.” “Waiting?” “Yes, Your Majesty, they are waiting to see whether what you did some weeks ago in appointing your own prime minister and cabinet ministers is going to make any difference to their lives or whether it is just going to be more Kathmandu hot air.” “Everything is going to be difficult and is going to take time, a lot of time.” “Your Majesty, time is the one thing you don’t have. You must act quickly and decisively to take advantage of the opportunity you have created. Everyone knows that you have appointed these new ministers. Why don’t you get them in here one by one and tell them that they have three months to deliver a programme in their area of responsibility that is going to make a difference to people’s lives? Most will fail to do so. Sack them! It will be a powerful signal of your strong intent to deliver real change.” I can express the opening of our conversation in this way because just about every word is still etched in my mind. The king’s response to my last quoted words was to challenge me to give an example of something that could be delivered quickly. I can give a verbatim record of what I said in response to this unexpected challenge: “Health posts, Your Majesty, there is no shortage of them throughout the country as building them has been one of the sources of local corruption, but very few have any medicine to issue at present or have skilled people to assess and meet medical needs. Your Majesty, children are dying for lack of a few pills. Given the right priority, over a period, say of six months, every health post could be fully stocked with medicine and manned with trained people. This is something I could help to lead for you as I know it would have strong international backing. At last, people would know that you mean business.” As I warmed to the theme, I could see no sign of the king having any enthusiasm for the idea, and I quickly disengaged as it dawned on me, as it had clearly dawned on the king, that the reason for the deficiencies in health posts was to prevent any Maoist combatant from gaining access to any <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/tech-away/nepal-s-health-tech-industry-is-here-to-stay">medical support</a>, and if this meant people suffering, so be it. The subject of the Maoist insurgency inevitably came up, and I took the opportunity to elaborate on what is written in the final four paragraphs of the article above. I advised King Gyanendra that, self-evidently, since there were three parties in the conflict—him, the Maoists, and the political parties—it was imperative that he form an alliance with one of them, preferably the political parties; otherwise, he would find himself isolated, as the other two parties would inevitably, at some stage, form their own alliance. However, it quickly became apparent that the king’s mind was on a totally different track. On the Maoists, he told me that he had channels open to them, but he was scathing about the political party leaders. He made it clear that they would be waiting for a very long time before he gave any power back to them, and that is a polite way of expressing the actual words he used, but “crawling through the door” is a phrase which has stuck in my mind.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_5403455ff6168f0d202a96cb53edea69136d74d59b989cfcc7cc4a1d57672cb5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250421080424_5403455ff6168f0d202a96cb53edea69136d74d59b989cfcc7cc4a1d57672cb5" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1317" loading="lazy" alt="fall of monarchy"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 28 April-3 May 2005 with cover image by Ajay Joshi of jubilant protesters after street demonstrations sidelined king Gyanendra, paving the way for a ceasfire and restoration of democracy. </figcaption> </figure>  As the conversation developed, it became ever clearer that King Gyanendra had decided to go in alone, relying on the misleading assurances he was constantly receiving from <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14954">the army</a>, and no doubt his close advisers, that the Maoists could and would be quickly defeated militarily, and taken out of the equation. This would obviate the need for him to do any deal with the political parties.&nbsp; Thus, the way would be clear for him to establish a version of his father’s Panchayat system, under a constitution that would be granted to the people by him, their sovereign, as his father and brother had done in 1962 and 1990. As in those constitutions, ultimate power would have remained in the sovereign’s hands. This proposed direction of travel was very clear from what the king said to me. In sum, King Gyanendra was motivated by a desire to emulate his immediate predecessors by granting his people a constitution that would restore his father’s Panchayat system in a modern form and give him a central role in decision-making. What was particularly dispiriting was that beyond this single objective he had no plan worthy of the name, nor demonstrably did he have the people with the skills to implement an appropriate plan even if one had existed. Crucially and depressingly, there was little or no indication from the king that he realised that such a course of action could put Nepal’s monarchy into serious jeopardy, as indeed proved to be the case. <h2>King Twice</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250420110436_315d519fe3d68d2406ebe1480fed54720fbf21b8907a4da5cde751fdc623d445.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250420110436_315d519fe3d68d2406ebe1480fed54720fbf21b8907a4da5cde751fdc623d445" data-rendition-name="original" width="1302" height="632" loading="lazy" alt="“Tell me what the common man is thinking!”"> </figure>  <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah has been king twice</a>. In 1950 he was enthroned briefly as a child king (left, above) by the Rana Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher when his grandfather, King Tribhuvan, fled to exile in India. In 2001 he was crowned king again after the massacre in the royal palace in which his brother King Birendra and nine other members of his family were killed by Crown Prince Dipendra.&nbsp; During his second reign, Gyanendra gradually asserted power by sacking Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in 2002, and then taking full control after the 1 February 2005 coup. He was sidelined after the ceasefire in April 2006, and became a commoner after the Constituent Assembly finally <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Ftnp-abolishing,624">abolished the monarchy in 2008</a>. In the past year, Gyanendra has tried to exploit public dissatisfaction with the political parties to restore the monarchy.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080432_26ef4a4b0e3cee9fdc6794446702efe16550d293904b4f6dd46fe35d4d10c788.jpg" data-media-id="editor_22" data-image-id="20250421080432_26ef4a4b0e3cee9fdc6794446702efe16550d293904b4f6dd46fe35d4d10c788" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Essays on Nepal by Sam Cowen"> </figure>

“Tell me what the common man is thinking!”

“It's Kathmandu.” Just as the family was sitting down for one of its extended lunches, that jubilant cry was from François Driard’s grandfather announcing the next posting for his diplomat parents.&nbsp; Driard (pictured) was 18 in the summer of 1996,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/chasing-a-nomad"> a bit of a hippie</a> already, and his life was about to change forever with the magical word “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/time-capsule-of-kathmandu">Kathmandu</a>”. “I was awed with that information from my grandfather, nothing else mattered … In France <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/tales-of-courage-and-suffering-cx95f89e">in the 1990s</a>, Kathmandu had a mythical aura,” Driard recalls. He came to Kathmandu for Christmas that year to visit his stepfather, the French Ambassador Michel Lummaux. It was to be the first of many visits during school holidays, before he decided to permanently settle down in Nepal. “Kathmandu, and Nepal, were very different then, it was magical, I liked the nature, the people, civilisation, temples, trees,” says Driard, who explored the country sitting on the top of buses. “Visitors talk about the crazy <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">urbanisation</a>, traffic jams today, and all that is true. But Kathmandu has not <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/loss-of-soul-and-soil">lost its soul</a>.” After his stepfather’s tenure in Nepal ended, Driard worked as a business reporter for international publications but decided he did not want to be anyone’s employee anymore. In 2007 he landed in Kathmandu with €20,000 in savings to invest.&nbsp; He knew a few crucial things about himself: he liked food and nature, which is very much tied up with his upbringing--full of lively conversations during lunch and dinner at the family table between <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-yak-cheese-is-on-world-map">abundant cheese, wine and cigars</a>. So he decided it would be cheese, and registered Himalayan French Cheese and went to the French Alps for a month to learn how to make Tomme de Savoie. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-story-of-langtang-cheese">Cheese making is such an ancient craft </a>and so I thought I won’t need much money or studying which I hated and indeed, if you have a tamako bhado and fire you are set,” explains Driard. But Nepal’s temperature and humidity were not ideal, even at higher altitudes. The first customers for his cheese were the Hyatt Regency and Nina and Hager. But he needed to create a market for cheese in a country which only knew hard churpi in the north and soft paneer in the south. He started selling his cheeses at the Summit Hotel weekend market, expanding to his own 1905 Farmer’s Market which later moved to Le Sherpa in Maharajganj, where it is now, and also a market at Labim Mall in Pulchok. He had cow dairies in Nuwakot and Dhulikhel, and finally a yak cheese unit at 3,379m in Ramechhap. It was the yak blue cheese from here that went on to win a Gold Medal in France, putting Nepal’s French cheese on the world map. “People come and try our cheese at the market, they ask questions. There is a lot of education to be done about cheese,” adds Driard, who also has three cheese shops in the Valley. Driard now makes 25 types of cheese. The products are being noticed and every year he has French students coming to Nepal to learn the art of yak cheese making. “In France, one family or company makes one kind of cheese for generations. In that I’m very unique as a cheese artisan,” he says. “The students come in to learn but I tell them to also teach us something too, add another cheese to my collection.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/langtang-after-10-years">Langtang after 10 years</a>, Sonia Awale Being a foodie, Driard is now also dabbling in meat with his own charcuterie at Meatini with bacon, ham, sausage and pâtés. All of this is now served at his Emilio’s Pizza, a leafy hideaway in Lazimpat. His South Side in Moksh is probably the smallest wine bar in the world. “I call the process sublime,” says Driard of his ventures, which have grown organically. “You need the same temperature and humidity of 12°C and 80% for cheese, meat and wine.” Emilio’s speciality is the eight-cheese pizza (which has eight types of cheeses), and a pizza with bhutan topping (not the country but fried intestines and organs Nepali-style). He has opened a small branch at Courtyard in Pokhara.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250426070456_bacae302c040dc18eeecdeafda72ddf06a6d2cec138ea9be7e45fe94cdf8b5b3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250426070456_bacae302c040dc18eeecdeafda72ddf06a6d2cec138ea9be7e45fe94cdf8b5b3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="8 cheese pizza"> <figcaption>Eight-cheese pizza</figcaption> </figure>  With two artisanal cheese units, two farmers’ markets, a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-meat-of-the-story">meat processing unit</a>, a bakery, and wine bar he now envisions a vineyard so he can add Nepali wine to his repertoire. Another future plan is to start up an agri-tourism business where customers can drink, eat and work in peace. In the past 20 years in Nepal, Driard has not always succeeded in his ventures but this hasn’t curbed his enthusiasm. He is learning as he goes, and like an old wine, Nepal is growing on him. Its slowness suits his French art de vivre with eating slowly outdoors, having conversation, importing less.&nbsp; “I have proven that with even a little money you can do a lot of things in Nepal,” adds Driard. “In the West, they easily invest half a million euros on a cheese factory, I invested 10 times less.”&nbsp;

Fromage, vin et charcuterie Népalais

Bhuthan भुठान starts with Bishnu Bahadur KC played by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/dhuwa-smoke-telefilm,2671">Hari Bansha Acharya</a> on a call, requesting to speak to the visa officer. By this point, he had <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-should-now-allow-visa-on-arrival">applied for a visa </a>to Bhutan 10 times, but was denied each time. KC was a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-women-excel-in-sports-in-2024-z9ramyct">national football player </a>in Bhutan in 1988 before he and other Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people were forced out of the country in the 1990s as part of the Druk regime’s ‘One Nation One People’ campaign. Over 100,000 Bhutanese Nepalis were forced out, driven across India and dumped in Nepal where they lived in seven<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp"> refugee camps</a> supervised by the United Nations and other charities until they were resettled in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries starting in 2007. In the fictional movie with the satirical English title The World’s Happiest Man, KC has resettled in the state of Ohio in the US but wishes to visit his home country once before he dies. Between flashbacks, we learn KC has died without having fulfilled his wish. &nbsp; The drama then focuses on KC’s two families from two marriages as they debate whether to cremate him as per <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/muslim-hindu,2996">Hindu rites </a>or give him a Christian burial. A mediator played by Hollywood actor Bruce Dern urges them to take a firm decision before it is too long.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250430140420_b398a08091b866da2b0b8f6c1e6e26781609749aba896bfd2c68a10a519295c3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250430140420_b398a08091b866da2b0b8f6c1e6e26781609749aba896bfd2c68a10a519295c3" data-rendition-name="original" width="945" height="945" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutan, the movie"> </figure>  There are drawn out scenes of KC being baptised and when he is confronted by his first wife from Darjeeling played by Anuradha Majumdar, he says he changed his religion in the hope that he will be <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/bhutan-s-refugees-between-hope-and-despair">allowed back in Bhutan</a>.&nbsp; We find out KC has a second wife, a Christian Nepali played by Puja Chand. Dayahang Rai as the younger son doesn’t have much screen time to flex his acting chops. &nbsp; Acharya competently portrays a man that is equal parts haunted by the memories of and longing for his home country. KC’s pain and loss is acute when he is teaching football to Gungun but between mid-scene, he freezes, perhaps lost in memories of being in Bhutan’s national team. &nbsp; In another scene, KC recalls his mother singing a lullaby in Dzongkha. He also has a box filled with medals, photographs and a football which he deflates with a knife in a powerful depiction of his <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/searching-for-a-homeland-away-from-home?fb_comment_id=1506516030025634">complicated emotions about his homeland</a>. KC keeps checking his mailbox in the hopes that his <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4977">visa application</a> has been accepted. He says in Nepali: “If a tree that has already struck roots in one place is shifted to another, it will not survive.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250430140420_4a9c27410326489576c04dedf40016bda3825e8f9663317f54fbfec4cbda6d34.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250430140420_4a9c27410326489576c04dedf40016bda3825e8f9663317f54fbfec4cbda6d34" data-rendition-name="original" width="1422" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutan, the movie"> </figure>  Dern’s character says that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">western world</a> has become “lonely in pursuit of happiness”, another reference to Bhutan’s obsession with its Gross National Happiness index. Scenes shift quickly throughout making the story difficult to follow at times. The use of symbolism is a trite overdone. Nonetheless, भुठान is a nuanced depiction of raw pain and agony of losing one’s homeland. But one cannot help but leave the theatre feeling deflated. KC dies without having visited <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/small-bhutan-dreams-big">Bhutan</a>, but perhaps he does in his afterlife. It is up to the audience to create its own ending to this sad story of exile. भुठान Mad Monkey Films, 2025 Directed by Binod Paudel 102 minutes In cinemas in Nepal

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