Carpool Kathmandu; you just need to ask!

New constitution after a great struggle, and finally some space for joy and celebration; all but gone within some days as Nepal's southern protest rises to its peak. And with India's blockade adding more pressure to what is already an intense situation, the problem for shortage of petrol has risen. With the blocked of India on Nepal in effect, there are limited options to import oil, petrol and other products. Long lines of vehicles in petrol pumps has already set the government to conserve what is left of the remaining petrol by implementing odd/even vehicle rule and disallowing international airplanes to refill in Tribhuwan International Airport.

These tense situation has given rise to a short term solution; Carpool Kathmandu. Fed up with the current situation, Sumana Shrestha founded a Facebook page Carpool Kathmandu and started her community campaign. With the shortage of petrol which eventually led to shortage of vehicle, the idea was to help the people of Kathmandu move around the city by simply asking for a ride on this page.

So how does this work? Here is what she writes: (Using Carpool Kathmandu Facebook group)

Before posting, please search the existing offers and asks - by either searching via Hashtags, ‪#‎Offer‬, ‪#‎Ask‬, or searching via name of the start or destination points.

#Ask - From where to Where, what time, what day
‪#‎Offer - From Where to Where, what time, what day
‪#‎Filled‬ - Once your request has been completed - please edit your post and update the #Ask and #Offer to #Filled, so that the filled requests do not show up in the searches.
Example - #Ask or #Offer or #Filled - Samakhusi to Babarmahal, at 8 AM, Wednesday - Sept 30th 

Anyone needing a ride can simply post the message using above format. The page has already gained above 30,000 member within the first week and there has been positive responses so far. It seems to be more effective among the people in Kathmandu. This has also helped to unite Kathmandu people to tackle the petrol issue more positively and also an alternative to think about for the near future.

So what lies ahead for Carpool Kathmandu, Sumana believes that since it is a community sourced project, it is bound to run according to the need of the people around Kathmandu. And with this rate of attention among the Kathmandu people, it is bound to stay for a longer time. The number of people joining the group could even help it spread on other cities in Nepal.

There is an app coming very soon for Carpool Kathmandu which would make it much easier for Kathmandu people to ask for a ride so stay alert! and don't forget to Carpool.
Those who haven't joined the group, click here: Carpool Kathmandu and help each other out.

Writer: +Bijesh Bajracharya 
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