The Hindu : Road to Pakistan to be dearer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 17, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Road to Pakistan to be dearer

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 16. The renewed agreements and the protocols governing the running of the Delhi-Lahore bus service will come into effect from Tuesday effecting an increase in the bus fares from Rs 800 (Rs 950 Pakistani) to Rs 1,250 (Rs 1,500 Pakistani) and beginning the facility to book return tickets from either side. The new Agreement will also mean mitigation of inconvenience and hardship to the passengers as it has now been decided that additional buses can be operated on the scheduled days by both the sides after mutual concurrence.

For the purpose of review and renewal of the Agreement and the Protocols, the meetings of the Technical Delegations of the two sides were held at Rawalpindi on January 13 and 14 this year and subsequently the Government of India and the Government of Pakistan had renewed the Agreement and the Protocols for a further period of five years.

The original Agreement between the two governments for the regulation of the bus service was signed on February 17, 1999 and the Protocol regarding the operation of the bus service in terms of the Agreement -- reached between the Delhi Transport Corporation and the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation -- had also come into force from that day.

The Sada-e-Sarhad bus service, which had been launched with the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Lahore on February 20, 1999 and continued smoothly till December 31, 2001, when it was suspended in the wake of the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13 that year.

However, after remaining suspended for a year-and-a-half, the service was again resumed on July 11, 2003. For that DTC had within a month's time renovated the Dr. Ambedkar Terminal at Delhi Gate from where the service operates and provided a number of facilities such as a spacious lounge, furnished waiting room for guests and an Electronic Weighing Machine for luggage weighing in the building.

Noting that the bus service is operated twice a week - on Tuesdays and Fridays -- by both operators with the return journeys taking place the following day, the DTC said from now on as per the new Agreement passengers will also be able to book return tickets in advance.

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