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First Lahore to Amritsar bus at Wagah border
by Ravinder Singh Robin
Lahore/Wagah border: The long-awaited first bus from Lahore to Amritsar reached the Wagah border checkpost on Friday and was given a warm reception. The 39-seated bus with 14 officials and 12 passengers is now scheduled to go towards Amritsar where it is likely to be given a reception by the East Punjab Government, which is led by Chief Minister Captain (retired) Amarinder Singh. The 14 officials include representatives of Ministry of Communication, Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation and District Coordination Officer Lahore. The 12 passengers include seven members of a troupe headed by the legendary folk singer Reshma, three Indians who had come to Lahore to watch the first cricket Test match between Pakistan and India and two representatives of Geo Television. The service to Lahore will leave every Friday and return on Saturday and the bus to Amritsar will run on Tuesday and return the next day. The fare for the one-hour drive is 740 Indian rupees and Rs 900 Pakistan rupees. Both sides have completed trial runs on the 45 km route.
According
to the Union Home Secretary V K Duggal who had visited the Wagah Border
on Tuesday to review the security arrangements for the bus service, the
bus service would bring people from both sides closer. The two countries
have also agreed to launch a bus service between Amritsar and Nankana
Sahib, a place of pilgrimage for Sikhs, soon. Trial runs of that service
will be held on January 27, with an Indian bus running from Amritsar to
Nankana Sahib, and on January 29, when a Pakistani bus will go the other
way. Transport links have been one of the most visible signs of the slowly
improving relations between India and Pakistan. In April last year, the
two sides had started a bus service across Kashmir, linking their parts
of the divided region with a twice-a-month service. The two sides resumed
a bus service between Lahore and New Delhi, in January 2004, shortly after
they agreed to a cease-fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and
Kashmir in November 2003.
-Jan
20, 2006
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