Kathmandu, March 20
As the fears of coronavirus infection have grown more severe, thousands of people temporarily living in Kathmandu for work and study are leaving for their family homes in rural areas of the country.
Only on Thursday, the first day after the government decided to temporarily shut all schools, colleges, cinema halls, and sports venues, around 9,000 people purchased their tickets to leave the city, according to public bus entrepreneurs at Naya Bus Park, the biggest bus park of Kathmandu.
Some passengers have complained that black marketing has surfaced in the crisis and many of them have been forced to pay excessive prices for the tickets. “I could not get any seat when I visited the counter, but the middlemen assured me a seat if I pay them double,” Pritam Pandey, heading to Mahendranagar of far-western Nepal says, “It is better to go home paying whatever they demand than to get stuck here.”
The number of passengers leaving Kathmandu is expected to go up in the next few days.
