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Lahore-Amritsar bus service begins

Sarabjit Pandher

Termed "twin cities" before Partition, they are finally connected after five decades

CHANDIGARH: Various apprehensions notwithstanding, the first ever Lahore-Amritsar bus service began after a low-key function on Friday, when a Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation bus carrying 26 passengers from Lahore crossed the zero line at the Wagah-Attari Joint Check Post along the international border.

The moment was of historic significance. Considered twin cities before Partition, Amritsar and Lahore are connected through a surface transport system for the first time since 1947.

As Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was in Hyderabad to attend the AICC session, Minister for Excise and Taxation Sardool Singh, Transport Commissioner and Director Iqbal Sidhu and Narinderjit Singh, respectively, received the bus at the border. Deputy Commissioner and police chief of Amritsar district Kirandeep Singh Bhullar and R.P.S. Brar, respectively, greeted the passengers. Elaborate security measures were in place.

Bhangra troupes

The light green-coloured bus, showing national flags inscribed with the word Dosti (friendship), ferried mostly Pakistani officials led by Pakistan Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Communication Firdous Aalam. Passengers included the celebrated folk singer Reshma and five members of her family.

The passengers were greeted by performances by Bhangra troupes and were showered with rose petals. It took four hours for the bus to travel the 65 km from Gulberga in Lahore to the International Bus Terminus in the Youth Hostel in Amritsar.

In the future, passengers would have to go to Delhi to get a visa from the Pakistan High Commission to avail the facility. Similarly, passengers in Lahore would have to travel to Islamabad for visa.

With the Lahore-Amritsar bus, the fourth road and rail link between India and Pakistan has became operational. Two road links, Delhi-Lahore and Srinagar-Muzarfarabad and the rail link between Lahore and Attari have been functional for some time now.

Two more surface transport links are expected to become operational next month when the Munnabao-Khokrapar train and Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus services would start.

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