Chevrolet bus of Nepal Transport Service

Karuna Ratna Tuladhar ( ne, करुणारत्न तुलाधर) (23 October 1920 – 19 July 2008) was a pioneer of Nepalese public transport. He was proprietor of

Nepal Transport Service Nepal Transport Service ( ne, नेपाल ट्रान्सपोर्ट सर्भिस) was the first, and for a time, the largest, Nepalese public bus line. The company was based in the capital Kathmandu and operated from 1959 to ...

which he and his brother

Lupau Ratna Tuladhar Lupau Ratna Tuladhar ( ne, लुपौरत्न तुलाधर) (22 June 1918 – 2 June 1993) was a Nepalese trader and transport pioneer. He and his brother Karuna Ratna Tuladhar established Nepal Transport Service in 1959 and operated ...

founded in 1959. This was Nepal's first public bus service which linked the capital Kathmandu with the railhead of

Amlekhganj Amlekhganj (''also'' Amlekhgunj) (Nepali:अमलेखगंज) is a town and Village Development Committee (now Sub Metropolitan City) in Bara District in the Narayani Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census it had ...

, 190 kilometers to the south near the Indian border.Shrestha, Bijaya Lal (11 August 1989). "All Those Years Ago: A trip through the early days of bus transport", ''The Rising Nepal''. The same year, Nepal Transport Service also started the first local shuttle between Kathmandu and Patan ( Lalitpur), one of the three cities in the

Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley ( ne, काठमाडौं उपत्यका; also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley ( ne, नेपाः उपत्यका, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः)), ...

Early life

Tuladhar was born at Dhalasikwa in Asan, Kathmandu, the second of three sons of trader

Pushpa Sundar Tuladhar Pushpa Sundar Tuladhar ( ne, पुष्पसुन्दर तुलाधर; 1885-1935) was a prominent merchant of Kathmandu and one of the chief donors to the restoration of the Swayambhu stupa in 1918. Swayambhu, a UNESCO World Heritag ...

and his wife Dhan Maya. Pushpa Sundar owned a business house in Lhasa, Tibet which conducted trade between Nepal, Tibet and India, transporting merchandise over the Himalaya by mule caravan.

Business in Lhasa

After a brief period of schooling under

Jagat Lal Master Jagat Lal Master ( ne, जगतलाल मास्टर) (1902 – 19 January 1967) (alternative name: Jagat Lal Shrestha) was a Nepalese educator and writer. He advocated the teaching of English and ran a school at his home, risking stat ...

, Karuna Ratna Tuladhar went to Lhasa and joined the family business. He travelled to Tibet for the first time in 1934. The journey at that time involved walking for two days, riding a vintage lorry and then a steam locomotive to the Indian border at

Raxaul Raxaul is a sub-divisional town in the East Champaran district of the Indian state of Bihar. It is situated at the India-Nepal border with Birgunj city (Nepal). Raxaul is a major railway junction. The Indian border town of Raxaul has become one ...

, followed by taking the Indian railway and a motorcar to Sikkim. From Sikkim, the merchants traveled by mule carvan to Lhasa which took 20 days. This trade route is an offshoot of the ancient

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

. Tuladhar would subsequently make two more trips, spending a total of 17 years in the Tibetan capital. In 1948, in between his second and third tours, he married Hira Shobha Tamrakar. He served as president of the

Nepalese Chamber of Commerce, Lhasa The Nepalese Chamber of Commerce, Lhasa opened in 1943, the first ever organization of businesses formed by Nepalese traders based in the Tibetan capital. The Newar merchants conducted trade between Lhasa and Kolkata transporting goods over the Hi ...

in 1952. He returned from Tibet for the last time in 1954 and managed the business from Kathmandu and

Kalimpong Kalimpong (Hindi: कलिम्पोंग) is a town and the headquarters of an eponymous district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of . The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The re ...

in West Bengal, India, the start of the caravan route to Lhasa.

Nepal Transport Service

Tuladhar decided to downsize his Tibet business and concentrate on home after Nepal's first highway Tribhuvan Highway opened to jeep traffic in 1956. After the road was improved to handle larger vehicles, Nepal Transport Service went into operation hauling freight with two Tata Mercedes-Benz trucks in March 1959. The company started passenger service in July the same year with a lone bus. Subsequently, its fleet grew to 11 Tata Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet and Bedford buses. Its head office was situated at the family home at 122 Asan Tyouda Tol, Kathmandu. The initial years were profitable, but the company began racking up losses due to the long periods of downtime as major repairs needed to be done in India. Nepal Transport Service folded in 1966. Tuladhar died in Kathmandu in 2008.

Postage stamp issued

On 31 December 2012, the Postal Services Department of the government of Nepal issued a commemorative postage stamp bearing portraits of Karuna Ratna and Lupau Ratna Tuladhar to honor their service to the nation. The stamp also shows a

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

bus of Nepal Transport Service.

Gallery

File:Karuna ratna 1932.jpg,

Tuladhar (second from left) in 1932 class photo.

File:Asan house front.jpg,

The Tuladhar home in Kathmandu.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 135-S-12-35-20, Tibetexpedition, Lhasa, Markt.jpg,

Tuladhar's shop in Lhasa (ground floor).

File:Karuna ratna tuladhar bsa.jpg,

Tuladhar on a BSA in Lhasa in 1954.

References