Traffic resumes on Tulsipur-Salyan road section

Traffic movement at the Tulsipur-Salyan road section resumed after three days on Tuesday morning following an agreement to provide compensation to the victims of the Salyan road mishap.

42 people were killed and 43 others injured when an ill-fated bus fell some 125 meters off the road at Bhantakhola of Salyan district on Saturday.

The locals had staged a vehicular strike in the section claiming the accident had occurred as the bus was old and carrying more passengers than its capacity and demanding appropriate compensation for families of the deceased people and injured ones.

A meeting attended Chief District Officer (CDO) of Salyan, district Police Chief, representatives of Rapti Zone Transport Entrepreneurs' Committee, Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs' Committee, political parties, All Nepal Trade Union Federation and Maoists on Monday evening agreed to provide Rs 17 thousand each to families of deceased as funeral expenses and to provide Rs 50 thousand of insurance money to victims' families by January, reports said.

According to reports, agreements have been reached with the other demands of locals, including, not to let old buses ply the road, to add two more buses in the Salyan-Dang route, not to let passenger buses carry more than 15 quintals of goods and carry passengers on the roof.

Protesting locals had obstructed the road since the accident, demanding fulfillment of their six-point demands.

After the tragic road accident, the government had formed a task force headed by the spokesperson at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management Uddhav Prasad Baskota to identify the causes of increasing road accidents. nepalnews.com pb Oct 31 06