The Hindu : Bus to Lahore may not resume on July 1

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

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Bus to Lahore may not resume on July 1

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI JUNE 19. Even as Indian and Pakistani officials today held a "good, cordial" meeting on restoring the Delhi-Lahore bus link, the service may not start on July 1 as proposed.

The three-member Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation delegation wasted no time in getting down to business with senior Delhi Transport Corporation officials this morning soon after reaching here from Lahore after a nearly 12-hour circuitous air journey via Dubai. "It was for both sides to come up with a date to resume the bus service. Naturally, it will be on a mutually-agreed upon date," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Following the three-hour meeting between senior Indian officials led by the DTC Chairman, A.J.S. Sahney, and three Pakistani officials — the Deputy Chairman of PTDC, Azfar Shafqat, the General Manager, Saeed Anwar Khan, and the Manager (Accounts), Sayed Quasim Abbas — the two sides said that due to immigration and visa procedures, the service may not be able to get under way on July 1.

Announcing that two buses each of both corporations would run on Tuesdays and Fridays, Mr. Sahney said the destinations, frequency, halts, seating capacity and fares would all remain the same for the time-being. The agreements were already in place as the services had only been suspended, the DTC Chairman said, adding that while the cost of operations have increased the revision of fares — which stood at Rs. 800 (Indian) and Rs. 950 (Pakistani) — would be taken up later.

Mr. Shafqat said the two sides would now process action on issues like immigration and visa requirements. He said the PTDC was in a position to start the service from July 1. But as the buses travel for just about an hour in Pakistan while they travel for nearly 12 hours in India, more preparatory work needed to be done on this side of the border.

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