The government has failed utterly to bring on track the transportation system that has gone haywire across the country for some four months now due to a fuel crisis and the Tarai agitation.

Overcrowded buses are a common sight these days with people forced to travel even on the roof. But the traffic police and the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) can do nothing to check the illegal and risky practice.

Authorities are also ignoring violations such as three persons riding a single motorcycle and public vehicles removing seats so cram in more passengers.

“As the number of public vehicles plying the road has fallen sharply due to the fuel shortage, we have no option,” said DoTM spokesman Basanta Adhikari. “Transport unions and drivers argue that they are compelled to buy fuel in the black market.”

The government’s failure to ensure smooth import of fuel from India has forced most vehicles to stay off the road. Superintendent of Police Posh Raj Pokharel, spokesman for the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, said only 35 percent vehicles are in operation in the Valley. Public buses are also denying fare discounts to students, complaining of high operation costs due to their reliance on smuggled fuel.

Long-distance vehicles have been found overcharging passengers. According to Adhikari, public buses were sometimes caught charging up to Rs1,000 for a trip to Narayanghat from Kath-mandu while the actual fare is Rs400. “We’ve punished vehicle operators in such cases but we ourselves have no fuel to conduct field inspections.”

President of Bagmati Federation of Transport Unions Bharat Nepal said diesel costs between Rs250 and Rs300 per litre in the black market, compared to Rs81 fixed by the Nepal Oil Corporation. He said the transportation sector has incurred losses amounting to billions of rupees due to the fuel crisis.

SP Pokharel said passenger buses would be allowed to carry people on the roof for the time being “until fuel supply eases”. The NOC has been rationing diesel to public vehicles while private vehicles have to wait for occasional distributions from the state-owned supplier. The last time the NOC distributed rationed petrol to private vehicles was on December 14.