The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi-Lahore bus to run thrice a week

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Delhi-Lahore bus to run thrice a week

Special Correspondent

On popular demand: Ready for more trips.

NEW DELHI: After signing a memorandum of understanding to increase the frequency of flights and landing destinations, India and Pakistan have decided to raise the number of weekly trips of the popular Delhi-Lahore bus service from two to three from either side from March 17.

Both countries have also agreed on a Lahore halt for the bus linking the holy Sikh cities of Amritsar and Nankana Sahib (in Pakistan), the Foreign Office said here on Thursday. However, the service ferrying Sikh pilgrims as also the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus is not as popular, mainly due to strict visa requirements.

“Both sides noted with satisfaction the operation of the bus services and discussed further measures for improvement,” noted a joint statement at the end of the first meeting of the India-Pakistan Standing Committee on Bus Services.

Increased people-to-people contacts are seen as a critical confidence-building measure, even as diplomats and bureaucrats have held four rounds of composite dialogue to resolve inter-state issues such as Kashmir and Siachen.

The Delhi-Lahore bus service was launched in 1999 with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelling in the maiden trip. The service was suspended following the December 2001 attack on Parliament and subsequent military mobilisation by the two sides on the border. It resumed in 2003 and has run without break since then.

PTI adds: At the meeting, the two sides also decided to rationalise the bus fare.

In addition, the quota for the return tickets would be increased from the existing six seats to 10 seats.

At present, an adult has to pay Rs 1,250 for a trip while a minor is charged Rs 833 per ticket by DTC. An amount equivalent in Pakistani rupees is charged for passengers travelling by PTDC.

They also decided that the financial officials of the two sides would meet every year, alternately in Delhi and Lahore, in July for reconciliation of accounts, the statement said.

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