New Indo-Pak bus services fail to attract passengers

Amritsar, May 7 : While the New Delhi-Lahore bus service has been a success, the Amritsar-Lahore and Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus services, started this year as part of the ongoing Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) with Pakistan, has not attracted many passengers if one were to go by statistics.

According to statistical figures available with the Punjab Roadways here, just 111 passengers, a majority of whom were Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), availed of the services of the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus and vice versa till April 29. The bus to Nankana Sahib was started on March 24 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged off a luxury Volvo coach of the Punjab Roadways from here.

Likewise, just 946 passengers travelled on the Amritsar-Lahore bus and vice versa till April 29. The two major cities of undivided Punjab were linked with each other on January 20 this year.

On the other hand, immigration officials at the Wagah check post say that the New Delhi-Lahore bus service which was started in April 1998 had been a success and was financially viable. On an average, 30 passengers travel on the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) 45-seater luxury coaches that run twice a week between New Delhi and Lahore.

Figures available for the Amritsar-Lahore bus service show that of the 946 passengers who travelled between the two towns from January 20 to April 29, 468 were Indians, 255 were Pakistanis and 223 NRIs. Of those who availed the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service, 45 were Indian passengers and the rest were either NRIs or foreigners including just a handful of Pakistanis.

The list of passengers available with the Punjab Roadways shows out that a number of Indian VIPs availed of the bus services to Lahore and Nankana Sahib. They had managed to secure a visa for Pakistan from Delhi and then due to their status, got the necessary security clearance from the Punjab Police.

Ordinary Sikhs or Indian citizens desirous of visiting Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, or Lahore, the capital of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, find it difficult to get visas to Pakistan and even if they do get the visas, security clearance is a major hurdle.

Interestingly, on April 29, not a single passenger arrived here from Nankana Sahib on board the Punjab Roadways coach. The Punjab Roadways Volvo coach and the PTDC coach had together made 21 trips between the two holy places till April 29.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Avtar Singh Makkar told UNI that the 'khule darshan didar(easy access)' as promised by the Prime Minister to gurdwaras in Pakistan will continue to remain a distant dream for Sikhs in India so as long as the government does not open a visa centre at Amritsar. Moreover, the stringent security clearance measures adopted by the government for Indian citizens would not encourage Sikhs to travel on the buses to Nankana Sahib or to Lahore, he said while claiming that a number of Sikhs who managed to obtain visas from New Delhi failed to go to Nankana Sahib as they could not get the necessary security clearance from the Punjab Police.

An aged couple of Moga district, who had managed to get a visa in the third week of April, could not go to Nankana Sahib along with their NRI daughter as they could not get the security clearance on the stipulated date.

Union Home Secretary V K Duggal, who came here in January, had promised that liberal security clearance rules would be adopted for Indians travelling on board the Amritsar-Lahore and Amritsar-Nankana Sahib buses. He had stated that for the aged and the children, security clearance would be just a formality while for others, the rules would not be stringent.

However, the reality is that security clearance takes nothing less than a week or may take even ten days or more from the day of intimation to the police authorities. For VIPs or for those who have the right connections, security clearance is a mere formality.

In fact, it is easier to get a visa for Pakistan and then walk across the Wagah border rather than take the bus to Nankana Sahib of Lahore. For crossing the Wagah border on foot, all one needs is a written permission from the Union Home Ministry which is easier to obtain than a security permit from the Punjab Police. Indian nationals above 65 years of age do not even need the Home Ministry clearance.

According to the SGPC chief, 'easy access' to the gurdwaras in Pakistan will continue to elude Indian Sikhs if the security clearance rules are not relaxed and a visa centre is not opened here. The Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has also been pressing the Union government for opening a visa centre here.

Another factor, according to transport officials that prevents passengers from travelling through the luxury coaches to Lahore and New Delhi from here is the fare. For Lahore, the fare is Rs 750 in Indian currency and 1050 in Pakistani currency and for Nankana Sahib, the fare is Rs 1200 in Pakistani currency and Rs 900 in Indian currency.

The bi-weekly Samjautha Express still continues to be the poor man's transport as the Attari-Lahore fare is a mere Rs 68 in Indian currency. The train is still utilised by the poor and middle class families for travel, though the upper class families prefer air travel or the Lahore-New Delhi bus service, which is confortable and makes a passenger from Lahore reach Delhi the same day. Passengers, who arrive on the Samjautha Express, have to board the Attari-New Delhi Express which leaves Attari in the night and reaches the national capital the next day.

Another preference for the Lahore-New Delhi bus service is that the immigration and customs clearance at Wagah are not time consuming as a maximum of 45 passengers can travel on a bus, while the clearance for Samjautha Express passengers takes time as customs and immigration staff have to deal with 600 odd passengers.

UNI