Sajha Yatayat: Kathmandu's Cooperative Bus Network and Electric Fleet

Sajha Yatayat (Nepali: साझा यातायात, literally 'shared transport') is a cooperative public-transport operator headquartered at Pulchowk, Lalitpur, running full-size city buses across the Kathmandu Valley along with a small number of intercity services. Registered as a transport cooperative in March 1962 (Chaitra 2018 BS), it is Nepal's oldest surviving public-bus brand and the most visible organised alternative to the Valley's fragmented, privately run microbus and minibus operators. Its green buses — and, since 2022, its white electric buses — are a fixture on trunk corridors such as Lagankhel–Budhanilkantha and Thankot–Tribhuvan International Airport.

Legally, Sajha remains a cooperative, with individual shareholders alongside institutional investors, and a board in which most members are elected by the general body. In practice, the state is its dominant financial backer: the federal government channelled Rs 3 billion through the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport for electric-bus procurement, Kathmandu Metropolitan City invested Rs 100 million in 2016, and Lalitpur Metropolitan City has pledged continuing support. Writer and publisher Kanak Mani Dixit, who led the revival board formed in 2011, has served as the cooperative's chair through the electrification drive (as of 2024).

Around the time of the Global Green Growth Institute's 2021 feasibility work, Sajha was operating about 71 diesel buses on roughly ten Valley routes and two intercity routes, carrying more than 26,000 passengers a day. With the 40 electric buses inducted between 2022 and 2024, the total fleet stands at about 110 vehicles, making Sajha one of the largest single bus operators in the Kathmandu Valley.

Sajha Yatayat was established in March 1962 (Chaitra 2018 BS) under Nepal's early cooperative movement, with politician Bishwa Bandhu Thapa as its founding chairman. Bus operations began within months, concentrating on intra-city routes in the Kathmandu Valley at a time when organised public transport barely existed. The service quickly built a reputation for punctuality, fixed and affordable fares, and reliability — qualities that made 'Sajha' a household word for the public bus itself.

Foreign assistance helped the cooperative grow into the backbone of Valley transport. In 1980 it received 35 Isuzu buses, and in 1986 Japan provided 47 Mitsubishi buses together with workshop equipment, allowing Sajha to expand routes and maintain its fleet in-house. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Sajha buses, together with the Chinese-built Kathmandu–Bhaktapur trolleybus, carried a large share of the Valley's commuters.

After the political change of 1990, Sajha Yatayat slid into decline amid politicised management, overstaffing and alleged corruption, while unregulated private minibuses took over its market. In 2001 the Cabinet decided to dissolve the organisation; the Patan Appellate Court overturned that decision in January 2003, but the reprieve did not translate into recovery. By 2007 (2063–64 BS) Sajha's buses had stopped plying altogether, and the brand survived only as a memory and a depot of derelict vehicles at Pulchowk.

In 2011 the cooperative's board, working with the government's transport ministry, adopted a revival strategy that restored Sajha to genuine cooperative governance: five of the seven board members are elected by the general body of shareholders, with two ex-officio government representatives. The revived board, chaired by Kanak Mani Dixit, raised fresh share capital and ordered new vehicles.

Services relaunched in April 2013 (2070 BS) with 16 Euro III-compliant, 55-seat buses imported from India for about Rs 58.3 million, fitted with CCTV cameras and automatic doors and running on two routes through Kathmandu's central business district. Ridership reached roughly 8,000–10,000 passengers a day within months. In November 2016 Sajha added 30 disabled-friendly Ashok Leyland buses (about Rs 3.5 million each) across four Valley routes — backed by Kathmandu Metropolitan City's Rs 100 million share investment — taking the fleet to 46 buses by the end of that year.

Sajha's urban network is built around long radial corridors that converge on central interchanges such as Lagankhel, Ratnapark and Jamal, linking Lalitpur, central Kathmandu and the Valley rim. As of mid-2026, the cooperative's official 'Short Route' (Intracity Express) list names eight numbered routes. Electric buses additionally serve a Patan Dhoka–Ratnapark–Chabahil–Jorpati corridor introduced in 2023, and the cooperative's mobile app provides real-time bus tracking and ticket booking.

Since mid-April 2026 (New Year 2083 BS), four Sajha electric buses have also run a night bus service coordinated with Kathmandu Metropolitan City from 8 pm to 11 pm on two corridors — Lagankhel–Budhanilkantha (about 16 km, passing major hospitals) and Thankot–Airport (about 20 km) — reviving an idea Sajha first attempted in July 2019.

Sajha entered the intercity market after Dashain 2016, launching long-distance services from Kathmandu to destinations including Bhairahawa/Lumbini, Gorkha and Baglung, with Birgunj also served in later years. The intercity portfolio has since been consolidated around the Kathmandu–Pokhara–Baglung corridor.

As of mid-2026, the cooperative's official long-route timetable lists daily night services between Kathmandu and Baglung and Kushma (Parbat district): departures at 4:15 pm from the Pulchowk head office to Baglung (fare NPR 1,070) and at 6:00 pm and 6:30 pm from Gongabu Bus Park and Kalanki to Kushma (fare NPR 1,000), with matching return departures. Tickets are sold at counters and through the eSewa digital wallet; on counter purchases, each bus reserves discounted seats — two for students, two for senior citizens and one for a passenger with a disability — at a 45 percent discount.

Sajha's electrification began as national policy. In December 2018 the government decided to procure up to 300 electric buses through Sajha Yatayat, allocating Rs 3 billion from the budget introduced under then prime minister KP Sharma Oli. The plan survived a political reversal — in February 2020 a later government demanded the Rs 3 billion back with interest before the dispute subsided — and was underpinned by technical studies with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). A 2018 Sajha–GGGI pre-feasibility study, using the 17 km Lagankhel–Budhanilkantha corridor as its base route, estimated that electric buses could cut fuel costs by up to 90 percent and recover their higher purchase price within about nine years; GGGI's follow-up 'Going Green' analytics (published July 2021) mapped suitable routes, charging regimes and depot charging for the first fleet.

On 9 October 2021 Sajha signed a contract with the Chinese manufacturer CHTC Kinwin (Nanjing) for 40 battery-electric buses. The first three were soft-launched on 7 July 2022 (23 Ashar 2079 BS), flagged off by 95-year-old founding chairman Bishwa Bandhu Thapa. These 8.5-metre buses cost about US$93,000 (roughly Rs 11.8 million) each, seat 26 passengers with space for around 45 in total, and carry a 161 kWh battery giving a range of about 200 km on a charge of roughly four hours, with a five-year manufacturer warranty. They feature wheelchair ramps, CCTV and free Wi-Fi, and began service with all-female driver and conductor teams.

The first electric corridors were Lagankhel–Budhanilkantha and Machhapokhari/Balaju–Airport, with a third route from Patan Dhoka through Ratnapark, Gaushala and Chabahil to Jorpati added in 2023. The remaining nine-metre buses — each carrying up to 50 passengers — arrived in phases, and by April 2024 all 40 electric buses were in operation, supported by 24 charging depots, charging points at the Nepal Electricity Authority headquarters, and a 1.1 MW charging station at the Pulchowk depot inaugurated on 10 April 2024 as Nepal's largest. Buses are charged mainly overnight, when grid electricity is surplus and cheapest.

Sajha has divided the Rs 3 billion electric-bus fund into three phases. The first phase delivered the 40 nine-metre-class CHTC buses and charging infrastructure now in service. In the second phase, the cooperative launched an international tender for larger 12-metre electric buses suited to high-demand trunk corridors, and a third phase is intended to bring electric buses to intercity routes such as Kathmandu–Pokhara. Sajha has also converted one of its diesel buses into an electric prototype as a research project into retrofitting the existing fleet, signalling a long-term goal of phasing diesel out entirely.

The economics and politics both favour the shift. Nepal generates surplus hydropower at night, and Nepal Electricity Authority officials say electric buses are many times cheaper to run per kilometre than diesel ones, while every electric vehicle reduces Nepal's costly petroleum imports. Electrifying public transport is also central to Nepal's climate commitments made under its Nationally Determined Contribution and its net-zero pledge. Chairman Kanak Mani Dixit has argued, however, that scaling up requires state-backed financing packages, since electric buses remain too capital-intensive for private operators to adopt on their own.

Sajha does not publish a fixed minute-by-minute timetable for its urban routes; buses run at short intervals from early morning until evening, with frequency varying by route and traffic, and the official Sajha Yatayat mobile app shows live bus locations and supports ticket purchase. The night bus service operates from 8 pm to 11 pm on the Lagankhel–Budhanilkantha and Thankot–Airport corridors. Urban fares follow the distance-based rates fixed by transport authorities for the Kathmandu Valley and are collected on board.

For long routes, passengers are asked to arrive 15 minutes before departure; tickets can be booked at the Pulchowk head office, the New Bus Park (Gongabu) counter, district counters, or via eSewa, and partial refunds (50 percent) apply only if a ticket is returned before noon on the day of travel. Across the fleet, Sajha buses are known for uniformed staff, CCTV, seats reserved for women, elderly and disabled passengers, wheelchair ramps and Wi-Fi on the electric buses, and the employment of female drivers and conductors — features that keep it the most trusted public-bus brand in the Valley.