India, Pakistan’s second rail link to start Feb 1

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian and Pakistan agreed on Friday
to start a second cross-border train service next month as the
nuclear-armed neighbors nudge a slow-moving peace process
forward.

The weekly train service between the border village of
Munabao in India’s western desert state of Rajasthan and
Khokrapar in southern Pakistan will resume on Feb 1, officials
said.

The service was cut 40 years ago after the tracks were
bombed in the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

“The purpose is to give connectivity to the people of the
two countries. It is a historic occasion,” said a member of the
Pakistani railway delegation, who declined to be named, at the
end of two-day talks in New Delhi with Indian officials.

“This is our public commitment,” Ashok Gupta, leader of the
Indian delegation, told reporters in New Delhi, adding the
train’s frequency and coaches would be increased if demand
rose.

India and Pakistan are already linked by a train service
between the cities of Amritsar and Lahore, further to the
north.

The new train, called the “Thar Express” after the Thar
desert in parts of India’s Rajasthan state and Pakistan’s Sindh
province, will run on a 12.5 km (8 mile) route and is expected
to carry about 400 passengers.

Customs checks will be carried out at Munabao and Zero
Point which is on the Pakistani side of the international
border.

India will send a team to Islamabad later this month to
finalize the technical details, Gupta said.

Both countries have strengthened transport, cultural,
sporting and commercial links in their two-year-old peace
process but have made little headway in resolving their main
dispute of Kashmir, the cause of two of their three wars.