Thursday, January 5 2006 11:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Railway officials of India and Pakistan began their two-day talks today ( Jan 5,2006) to finalise the modalities as well as the dates for the resumption of the Munabao-Khokhrapar train service between the two countries.

A high-level 10-member Pakistani delegation headed by Saleemur Rehman Akhund, General Manager (Operational),Pakistan Railways, held discussions with the Indian team headed by Ashok Gupta, Advisor Traffic (Indian Railways) on various issues, including travel documents and visas for travel on the railway route, customs duty, fare for the journey and security of passengers and the train.

Before going in for the talks, Akhund told sources that he was hopeful of finalising the agreement for resumption of rail services on the route between the two countries.

"We hope to finalise the agreement. We have come with an open mind. This is another confidence building measure and we will be discussing the draft proposal for the movement of passengers," he said.

The visiting delegation also included Mohammad Saleem, Deputy Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Syed Ijaz Ali Gilani, Minister of Interior, Dr M. Zubair Yousafani, Additional Commissioner, Customs, and Muhammad Khalid Jamali,first Secretary Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi.

Besides Gupta, the 13-member Indian delegation included H S Brahma, Joint Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs, K Jeevasagar, Director, Ministry of External Affairs, Sanjiv Goyal, Joint Commissioner (Immigration), Ministry of Home Affairs and T K Bandopadhaya, Under Secretary Land Customs Ministry of Finance.

Services on the century-old route were scheduled to resume from January one this year as part of the confidence building measures but three postponements were necessitated as the modalities could not be finalised.

The resumption of the second rail link would minimize the journey from Sindh province of Pakistan to Rajasthan to five hours.

At present, people willing to come to Rajasthan have to travel all the way to Lahore and take the rail or road route to Amritsar or Delhi.

The second rail link between the two countries is expected to be popular as Sindh was the home of large number of migrants to India after Partition.

The two countries have a rail link between Delhi and Lahore, with the last station in India being Attari near the Wagah border in Punjab.