First ever Tibet-Nepal bus rolls out

KATHMANDU: The first bus of a new public service from Nepal to Tibet left Kathmandu on Sunday, taking 41 excited passengers on a winding three-day trip that illustrates the kingdom’s efforts to boost ties with China. Nepal’s transport minister Ram Narayan Singh and Chinese ambassador Sun Heping flagged the bus off for its Himalayan journey with 15 journalists among its passengers. “This is my first visit to Lhasa and I am going there to see the places of interest,” said passenger Mahesh Shrestha as others crowded for photographs in front of the vehicle. The bus will run once a week and covers 840 kilometres (525 miles) of mountainous terrain across the Tibetan plateau. Another bus, also part of the new service, left Tibet’s Lhasa for Kathmandu on Friday with 23 passengers on board, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency. The two buses would meet at the Friendship Bridge on the Nepal China border, 114 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu, for a brief celebration, Xinhua said. China and Nepal agreed on the bus service in November 2004. The fare is 70 dollars, considerably lower than the 273 dollars for an Air China flight between the two points, said tour operator Rajendra Dahal. “The bus service is expected to consolidate the existing ties between Nepal and Tibet and cut the travel costs for the passengers of the two cities,” said Srijana Devkota, the coordinator of the Nepalese state-run bus service. The service, which will operate nine months out of the year because of snow blocking high passes in the winter, is expected to bring more Chinese tourists to Nepal and allow Western tourists who visit Nepal greater access to the once-forbidden city of Lhasa. afp

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