Samjhauta service to resume from India today

NEW DELHI: The Samjhauta Express will leave for Pakistan from Delhi on Sunday after the two neighbours agreed to operationalise services at their ends, a senior railway official said.

The announcement came a day after Pakistan released Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. The official said the first train from India will leave on March 3. While Pakistan had cancelled its services right after an air strike by the Indian Air Force, India cancelled the operations of Samjhauta Express on Thursday.

The Railway Board in an order had said all operations of the Attari Special Express, Delhi-Attari-Delhi, which together with the Pakistani line from Wagah-Lahore is known as the Samjhauta Express, will remain cancelled. It had also said that the cancellation was due to “purely operational reasons”.

Sources said after the missive about Pakistan’s resumption of services was conveyed to the board, it was decided that services on the Indian end will resume too.

The train will start running from the Indian side on Sunday, while in Pakistan, it will leave Lahore on Monday for its return journey, the official said. On the Indian side, the train runs from Delhi to Attari and from Lahore to Wagah in Pakistan.

The Samjhauta Express, named after Hindi word for “agreement”, comprises six sleeper coaches and an AC 3-tier coach. The service was started on July 22, 1976 under the Shimla Agreement that settled the 1971 war between the two nations.