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ShareLAHORE: The bus service between Amritsar, the city of the Golden Temple and Nankana Sahib, the city of Gurdwara Janam Asthan, is unlikely to make the journey easier for the common people because of multiple reasons. While the launching of the Amritsar-Nankana bus service was widely welcomed on both sides of the border, the high ticket prices and the fact that the Indian Sikhs will have to travel to New Delhi first to get a visa have already created apprehensions that the service might be not be viable.
According to Sardar Bishan Singh, the head granthi of Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, the ticket between Amritsar and Nankana is priced at Rs1,000 for the four-hour journey and many of the Sikh yatrees had opined during their Nankana visit that the fare was too high. He says most of the devotees who want to visit the Gurdwara Janam Asthan would not be able to afford this amount.
At the same time, the non-availability of visas to Sikhs to go to Nankana city poses yet another problem. Says Sardar Rawail Singh, Member Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee: "Starting the bus services from Amritsar would be of little purpose if visas are issued only in New Delhi. The Indian government should do something about it."
He says the Amritsar-Lahore bus service, started in December 2005, is still not plying to capacity due to the Rs 800 fare. "The bus services were started so that people from Punjab did not have to make a nearly 900-km journey to and back from New Delhi to board the Delhi-Lahore bus which made no stop anywhere in Punjab."
