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Security check for Amritsar-Lahore bus service
Wagah Border (Punjab): Union Home Secretary VK Duggal on Tuesday visited the Wagah Border post to review the security arrangements ahead of the start of the much awaited Amritsar-Lahore bus service. The service is due to begin from Lahore on Friday, January 20 and from Amritsar on January 24. The Indian bus will make the journey to Lahore on Tuesdays and return on Wednesdays. The Pakistani bus will travel to Amritsar every Friday and return on Saturday.
The agreement was signed at the conclusion of two-day technical- level talks in Lahore last month. The cities are situated 60 kilometres apart. Duggal, who had also gone to take stock of the immigration arrangements, said the bus service would bring people from both sides closer. "I would say that the relationship is on upswing, definitely. The policy of the Government of India is very clear. It comes in the media day in and day out that where cross border terrorism is concerned that cannot be tolerated and has to be handled effectively and firmly," said Duggal. "But the Prime Minister and the Government of India is also very clear that people to people contact, improved trade relations and CBMs announced by the Centre and the joint declaration by Prime Minister and President Musharraf when he was here last time, must be pursued sincerely," he added.
Transport links have been one of the most visible signs of slowly improving relations between the two neighbours, who have fought three wars and one conflict since Independence in 1947. In April last year, the two sides started the fortnightly Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service across the Line of Control connecting Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). The two sides also agreed to start a bus service between Amritsar and the holy town of Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev. Trial runs of that service will be held on January 27, with an Indian bus running from Amritsar to Nankana Sahib and Pakistan bus making the journey otherway on January 29. The New Delhi Lahore bus service started in 1998 was also resumed in January 2004, shortly after the ceasefire in Kashmir.
The dignitaries present for the meeting at Wagah were - Home Secretary of Punjab A K Dubey, Inspector General of Railway Police Force T K Mehta, Director General of Police of Punjab S H Viragh, GM Nothern Railway Madhav Patnaik, Chief Commission Custom S F Bedi, Additional DGP Northern Railway Alagh. Other officers from Tourism and Railway ministry and intelligence officers were also present. The bus services from Lahore to Amritsar and Amritsar to Lahore are scheduled to begin on January 20 and January 24 respectively. A trial run of the bus service, which is aimed at expanding economic cooperation and facilitate people-to-people contact between the two countries, was conducted on December 11 last year while the reverse trial run from Pakistan was held on December 13. The trial run for Amritsar-Lahore bus service was to be conducted in the second week of October this year but due to the earthquake in Kashmir in October, it was rescheduled to December. A 45-seater Volvo bus having all international luxury facilities will be used for the service. The bus is from Sweden and its body was made in Bangalore. All the international safety features have been provided in the bus costing Rs 65 lakhs (147000 dollars approximately).
Amritsar
and Lahore are the twin cities of old Punjab, one of the richest provinces
of pre-partition India. India and Pakistan opened a bus link across the
Line of Control (LoC) in April this year, which is hailed as the most
tangible outcome of a peace process begun over a year ago. As per the
agreement, the designated operators for the bus service would be Punjab
Roadways from the India side and Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation
from the Pakistani side. There would be one service every week on the
56-km route. The Indian bus will depart from Amritsar on Tuesdays and
return on Wednesdays while the Pakistani bus would depart from Lahore
on Friday and return on Saturday.
-Jan
17, 2006
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