“The talks have begun today in a positive atmosphere and we hope to have the buses plying next month,” Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner Munawwar Bhatti said. Some officials said the popular deadline of July 1 to re-start the buses could be ambitious.
Mr Bhatti said a final date would be announced after visiting Deputy Managing Director of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Azfar Shafqat and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) Chairman A. J. S. Sahani, who met on Thursday, resolve details of travelling officials, their visas and some other pending financial issues.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had inaugurated the bus service when he went to Lahore in February 1999 astride one of them. He however stopped the facility when all direct traffic was stopped following an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001.
Mr Bhatti said there would be two services per week each way, carrying 40 people in each bus, including 35 passengers and security personnel. In better times there were four services each way, doubling the number of passengers.
“In our estimates, the train service used to carry 80 o 90 per cent of the land traffic,” Mr Bhatti said. He said Pakistan was ready to resume the Samjhota Express as soon as India was ready to resume the train link between the two countries.
The seven-member Indian team was led by Mr Sahani, while Mr Azfar headed the three-member Pakistani delegation which arrived on Thursday morning by air via Dubai in the absence of direct air link between the two countries.