Jammu, December 21
After deciding to restore the Samjhauta Express from Attari to Lahore, decks are being cleared for the resumption of bus services on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, which remained snapped with the tribal invasion on Kashmir in 1947.
According to official sources, two senior Jammu and Kashmir Government functionaries were summoned by Delhi the other day to discuss the plan for laying infrastructure that was needed for reopening the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for the much-awaited bus services.
The sources said the Chief Minister, Mufti Mohd. Sayeed, during his recent meetings with the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, had reiterated his demand for reopening the road, once called the Jehlum valley road, for inter-country bus services.
A senior state government functionary said both Delhi and Islamabad had agreed in principle to restore bus services between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar following overwhelming support to the plan from the people on either side of the LoC.
He indicated that a formal announcement might be made during the ensuing SAARC summit.
Official sources disclosed to this correspondent that government agencies concerned had been asked to prepare a blueprint for the upgradation of the Jehlum valley road on which only the officials of the United Nations Military Observers Group travelled, occasionally, beyond Uri. Between Lal Bridge, the last border outpost in Uri and Chakoti, across the LoC, the road required major upgradation.
The sources said the plan for the construction of bus terminals, offices and sheds for the security guards, immigration and customs officials would also be formulated.
It is learnt that Pakistan no longer insists on regulating the passenger traffic on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route by the United Nation officials after India rejected the idea mooted by it.
Official sources stated that the plan of reopening the Sialkot-Suchetgarh road for bus services would be taken up for discussion after the experiment on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route proved successful.
Majority of people in the Kashmir valley have supported the plan for reopening the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road.
Javed Ahmed and Nazir Ahmed, two government employees said, “residents in Srinagar wishing to meet their relations in Muzaffarabad will have to spend four to five hours in reaching the Capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir against five days from going via the Wagah border.”
The Chief Minister has said “Restoration of bus services on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road will be another step in the direction of normalising the relations between India and Pakistan.”
Addressing legislators belonging to the coalition government in Jammu the Chief Minister said “Days are not far when the bus services between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and between Suchetgarh and Sialkot would be resumed to facilitate meeting of the members of the divided families.”
