Suryabinayak Ratnapark is now 45 minutes away by express bus

KATHMANDU: On the occasion of Constitution Day, an express bus service will be launched in Kathmandu Valley for the first time on Wednesday.

The express bus service running on the Suryabinayak-Ratnapark road section will be inaugurated at 9 am.

Prakash Jwala, Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Laxman Lamsal, Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Balendra Shah, Mayor of Madhyapur Thimi, and Mayor of Suryabinayak Municipality will ride on the first day.

According to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the express bus service will be available to customers beginning Thursday, Ashoj 4 (Sept 21).

While normal public buses take an hour and a half to get from Ratnapark to Suryabinayak, the express bus service is reported to get there in 45 minutes. The traffic police will also aid quick service buses in avoiding stopping at congested crossings such as Maitighar, Koteshwor, and Jadibuti.

The department states that such buses will pick up and drop off passengers at 19 different sites. Passengers will only be picked up and dropped off in Ratnapark, Bhadrakali, Maitighar, Babarmahal, Nayabaneshwar, Shantinagar, Tinkune, Koteshwor Jadibuti, Lokantali, Kaushaltar, Gathaghar, Chardobato, and other locations for rapid bus service. Express buses, like regular buses, will not stop to pick up passengers.

Fast service buses will depart from both Ratnapark and Suryabinayak at 5/5 minute intervals.

Those buses will run only on the red colored lanes.

Express bus services will be operated on these lanes daily from 9 am to 11 am and from 4 pm to 6 pm.