Sajha Yatayat -- once very popular means of transportation in the country is planning to operate land transport flag carrier service -- to neighbouring countries -- apart from operating urban transport service in Kathmandu Valley and inter-district transport service.
"We have three-point goal," said newly elected chairman of Sajha Yatayat Cooperatives after assuming his charge here today.
"We will work on the goals phase-wise," he said, adding that it will now seek a good management team first.
Sajha Yatayat -- a 50-year old organisation that started mass transport service in Nepal -- failed to retain its past glory post 1990 movement and the private sector started coming aggressively in mass transportation sector.
The extraordinary general meeting of Sajha Yatayat Transport cooperative unanimously elected its new board today. Journalist Kanak Mani Dixit has been elected as chairman in the newly elected board that has former registrars of the Cooperatives Department Shanker Raj Joshi and Binod Kumar Adhikary, banker Bandhana Thapa and environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar.
The annual general meeting two months ago decided to take the organisation away from government control and revive it as a genuine cooperative by directly electing board members.
The other members of the board are DG of Department of Transport Krishna Prasad Dawadi and Registrar of the Cooperatives Department Sudarshan Raj Dhakal.
"The government has taken an extraordinary step in helping Sajha Yatayat evolve as a cooperative," said immediate past chairman and secretary at Labour and Transport Ministry Dinesh Hari Adhikary handing over the charge to the new board. He also hoped that the new board will work effectively to provide the public with efficient, secure and economical public transport service.
Ending almost fifty years of government control Sajha Yatayat has been transformed into a fully cooperative model with directly elected board directors from today.
It has been dysfunctional for the last four years due to political bickering by successive governments and mismanagement.
Registered under the Cooperative Act, Sajha Yatayat was controlled by the government majority, though it has a total of 233 members.
"It needs to procure at least 20 new buses in the first phase, and gradually expand its fleet to lessen the private sector monopoly in the public transport sector," according to Sajha Yatayat.
Earlier, it used to operate a total of 182 buses on different routes in the country but it has only eight buses at present.
Sajha Yatayat had twice tried to operate on Kathmandu-Lhasa route too but it could not continue its service for long.
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