With Nepal Tourism Year-2011 just around the corner, the Kathmandu-Lhasa bus service, which was suspended more than three years ago, is very likely to resume within a month.

According to Wednesday's Republica daily, once this service comes into operation, Chinese tourists are expected to start arriving easily in Kathmandu from Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, by surface transport.

"We are very hopeful of restarting the Kathmandu-Lhasa bus service by the very first month of 2011, keeping the tourism year in mind," Anil Gurung, acting director general of the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), told Republica.

According to Gurung, work is going on steadfastly to repair the partly-damaged road that links Kathmandu to Zhangmu or Lhasa as it is popularly known in Nepal.

However, Hong Mei, a Chinese national who won the contract to operate the bus service from Kathmandu to Lhasa, said: "We are trying to operate our service within this very month." Initially, two buses from Kathmandu and two from Lhasa will be ferrying Chinese tourists. But Nepali tourists wanting to visit Lhasa by bus will be few compared to the Chinese visiting Kathmandu.

According to Hong Mei, tourists will be charged 70 U.S. dollars per person for going to Lhasa by bus.