Talks on the Khokhrapar-Munnabao rail link begin Thursday, December 2 2004 12:39 Hrs (IST)
Islamabad:
Top railway officials of India and Pakistan today (Dec 2, 2004) began talks in Islamabad to finalise arrangements for the train service between Khokhrapar in Southern Sindh province and Munnabao in Rajasthan.
A seven-member Indian delegation headed by L R Thapar, Additional Member of Railway Board arrived last night (Dec 1, 2004) to hold two-day talks on the issue. The Pakistan delegation is headed by Secretary Railways Shakil Durrani.
The Indian delegation also included senior Railway, Customs and Rajasthan Government officials.
The talks are part of the second round of composite dialogue process between the two countries. The two nations had earlier explored the possibilities of resuming the bus link between the two border towns in Rajasthan and Sindh. The proposal, however, had been abandoned for the time being as Pakistan said it would take a long time for repair work.
The two countries are now exploring possibilities to restore the rail link, which existed till the 1960s. External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh recently said that India was hopeful that rail link will be restored by October 2. Pakistan, however, has remained non-committal.
"In their two-day talks, the two sides would try to finalise the schedule for restarting the historic rail service across the Sindh-Rajasthan border for which they need to overcome technical problems such as repairing of the old track as well as the building of immigration and customs infrastructure," a Pakistani official was quoted in the media as saying.
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