Traffic police have nabbed 13 vehicles (6 micro and seven minibuses) for overcharging bus fair with the pilgrims, heading to Godawari Mela on Saturday.

The traffic police in the district started to inspect from Saturday after receiving complaints from the pilgrims visiting the fair celebrated on every 12 years. It has been learnt that the passengers were compelled to up to pay Rs 100 for travelling the 8.7 km Satdobato to Gowadari route while the actual fair is just Rs 27.  

“Now onwards we are strictly monitoring the each public vehicles operating on the route from Saturday,” said Sitaram Hachhethu, chief of Lalitpur Traffic, who is assigned to look after the traffic of the route till the gala is over.  Currently 50 traffic police have been deployed in the area, while 16 traffic police 10 in uniform and six with civil dress are deployed between Satdobato and Gowdari to monitor the exuberant charges.

According to vehicles and Transport Management Act 1993, the overcharging owners of the vehicles have to pay Rs 2,000 to 5,000 as fine.  

“We came to know Pilgrims coming from the outer part of the city are victimized by the vehicles staffs, as they do not know the actual bus fare,” said Hachhethu.  People from Kavre, Dhading, Bhaktapur, Nuwakot, Dhulikhel, Budhanilakantha, Sankhu and other places come to attend the gala.

The month long Godawari Singhastha Mela had kicked off in the district on August 18.  The mela organising committee said, over 100,000 people visited the gala only on Saturday alone and expect 5 million people visiting the gala.  Around two million people had visited the gala 12 years ago.