The Hindu : Front Page : Lahore-Amritsar bus service begins with song and dance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 21, 2006

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Lahore-Amritsar bus service begins with song and dance

Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH: Transcending various apprehensions, the first Lahore-Amritsar bus service began 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 now connected through a surface transport system for the first time since 1947. Bus service, which was a common activity along the Grand Trunk Road in the pre-Partition days, became a rare treat along the re-christened Sher Shah Suri Marg.

Since Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had left for Hyderabad to attend the All-India Congress Committee session, Excise and Taxation Minister Sardool Singh, Transport Commissioner Iqbal Sidhu and Director Narinderjit Singh received the bus at the border, while Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Kirandeep Singh Bhullar and Police Chief R.P.S. Brar greeted the passengers amid elaborate security measures.

The light green bus sporting national flags with "Dosti" inscribed, ferried mostly Pakistani officials led by their Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Communication, Firdous Aalam. Among the passengers were the celebrated folk singer Reshma and five members of her family. The welcome included performances by Bhangra troupes and persistent shower of rose petals.

The moment the bus entered India, smartly attired BSF jawans saluted it while a police band played "Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi... "

It was interesting to note that it took four hours for the bus from Gulberga in Lahore to culminate its 65 km journey at the International Bus Terminus in the Youth Hostel at Amritsar.

In future, interested passengers would have to undertake a 12-hour journey to Delhi to get a visa from the Pakistan High Commission to avail of the facility. Similarly passengers in Lahore would have to travel to Islamabad. With Friday's ceremony, the fourth road and rail link between India and Pakistan has become operational. Two road links -- Delhi-Lahore and Srinagar-Muzarfarabad -- and the only rail link between Lahore and Attari have been functional for some time now. Sources indicated that two more surface transport links between the two countries are expected to become operational next month when the Munnabao-Khokrapar train and Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus services would start.

For the driver of the bus, Yaseen, it was an experience of a lifetime and he was overwhelmed by the response from the people, who prayed for the initiation of the service. He remarked that traffic was the same on both sides but roads were slightly better on the other side.

Other passengers, including four Indian cricket fans, said that they could not convince themselves that they had participated in such a historic event, which according to them would "unite the hearts of the two nations".

In future the Pakistani bus named "Dosti" (Friendship) will arrive every Friday and return the following day, while the Indian bus "Punj Aab" (named after the five rivers in the state) would depart from Amritsar every Tuesday and return on Wednesday.

The one-way fare for the journey aboard the 45-seater air-conditioned bus would be Rs. 750 in India and Rs. 900 in Pakistan.

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