In a major boost to connectivity between Nepal and India, two bus services from Mahendranagar to New Delhi were flagged off on Wednesday

Dinesh Bhandari, president of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs Federation, flagged off the buses. “Now, we are preparing to operate bus service to Dehradun,” said Bhandari, adding all frontier formalities for the service have been completed.

Mahakali Transport Entrepreneurs Committee has joined hands with Uttarkhand Transport Corporation and Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation to operate the Mahendranagar-Delhi bus service. “For now, there will be a night service, while day services will be operated gradually,” he said.

The journey starts from Mahendranagar at 6:00 pm, while the bus will return at 8:00 pm from Delhi.

The buses have to cross a bridge on the Sharda River which is open for heavy vehicles only from 6:00am to 8:00am and 6:00pm to 8:00pm daily. The distance from Mahendranagar to Delhi is 375km. The one-way fare has been set at IRs570.

“While Indians go to Nepal as tourists, many from Nepal come to India in search of work. We had started with one bus to and from Nepal last month, but with the increase in demand, we added

one more bus earlier

this month,” Indian media quoted PK Bose, regional manager of Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation, as saying.

Lately, there has been an increase in the number of passengers travelling between Nepal and India. As the two countries have proposed constructing a four-lane bridge on the Mahakali river, locals said once the bridge is constructed, it would increase the flow of Indian visitors to Nepal significantly and Mahendranagar could be a transit hub in the Far-west Region.