PESHAWAR, April 15: Delay in resumption of the bus service between Peshawar and Jalalabad has been attributed to private transport operators who has not been able to arrange proper travel documents for their staff, officials said here on Saturday.

“Some of the bus drivers and conductors have not yet got their identity cards (ID). They are still in the process of obtaining travel documents,” the officials said.

The transport ministries of the two countries have asked their respective transporters to complete the documentation which is delaying resumption of the bus service.

The Peshawar-Jalalabad bus service was suspended in 1979 when Russian forces invaded Afghanistan.

Transport officials had announced last month that the bus service would be resumed in a month’s time but had not set any fixed schedule.

Sajid Khan Jadoon, the regional transport authority official, said there was no fixed time in the agreement under which the bus service was to be resumed between the two cities of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“We are also waiting for the NWFP chief minister to give us a date sometime at the end of this month to formally inaugurate the bus service between the two cities,” said Mr Jadoon.

The United Group, a private transport company, had even locally arranged a bus terminal at the Jamrud Road. “About a year ago the district government had made a commitment to provide us a plot of land near Hayatabad (Karkhano area) but it later reneged on the deal,” Mr Jadoon said.

Kabul and Islamabad agreed to start the bus service between Jalalabad and Peshawar during Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit to Islamabad in March 2005.

A successful trial run of the bus service between Jalalabad and Peshawar was held last month.

Under a bilateral accord five buses are to operate between the two cities daily but the passengers and drivers must have complete and valid travel documents.

One bus of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) will be run between the two cities on alternate days. Six buses from the Afghan side will be run on a daily basis.