Pakistan, India to restore rail link Feb 18 after 41 years (AP) Updated: 2006-01-31 18:25
Pakistan and India agreed Tuesday to restore service along a rail link cut
off more than four decades ago by war, the latest confidence-building measure in
the nuclear-armed rivals' wide-ranging peace process.
The deal to start running trains on February 18, establishing the second rail
link between the two nations, came after months of negotiations.
Pakistan will operate the service for the first six months of the year, then
Indian for the other six months.
The "Thar Express" will run from Mirpurkhas in southern Pakistan and pass
through the border town of Khokhrapar and on to Munabao in India's western state
of Gujarat. It will run every Saturday and return the same day.
Mushtaq Khan Jadoon, additional general manager at state-run Pakistan
Railways, and Ashok Gupta, an adviser with the Indian railways ministry, signed
the agreement in Islamabad and shook hands.
The service was originally set to reopen February 1, but the date was pushed
back due to delays in preparations on the ground, a Pakistani railways official
said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the
media.
The leaders of Pakistan and India agreed to reopen the rail link _ which was
severed during a 1965 war between the South Asian rivals _ during a summit in
New Delhi in April 2005. Since then officials from the two sides have met
several times to iron out the details.
A rail link between Lahore and New Delhi was restarted in 2004, weeks after
the two nations began their peace process aimed at burying six decades of
hostility.
The peace talks have seen the two countries restore transportation,
diplomatic and cultural ties, but progress has been slow on resolving their
bitter dispute over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, focus of two of
their three wars since independence in 1947.
|