The first round of the two-day meeting in New Delhi between top Railway officials from India and Pakistan on resumption of the Munabao-Khokrapar rail link ended on Thursday with both sides making 'some headway' on the modalities.
"Thursday's meeting was largely exploratory in nature and the two sides discussed freely various aspects of the rail link, which would connect Munabao in Rajasthan and Khokrapar in Sindh and shorten the travel to five hours," Railway Ministry sources told UNI.
The issues which were believed to have been discussed at the six-hour-long meeting included the date for the resumption of train links, customs clearance, exact disembarkation points, travel documents, security of passengers and railway infrastructure and fare, the sources said.
The resumption of proposed rail link had missed two deadlines - October 2 last year and January one this year - as the two countries failed to iron out their differences, especially on travel documents.
Ahead of the meeting, Pakistan Railway General Manager Saleem-ur-Rehman Akhoond, leading his country's ten-member delegation, said he had come with an open mind and hoped to finalise the agreement.
The two delegations will resume talks on Friday in an effort to reach an agreement on all the contentious issues.
An External Affairs Ministry spokesman is likely to brief the press on the outcome of the meeting on Friday.
Ashok Gupta, Advisor (Traffic), is leading the 13-member Indian delegation, which comprises nine members from the Railway Board, two from the Home Ministry and one each from the External Affairs Ministry and the Finance Ministry.
A senior ministry official said, "Everything is ready on the Indian side. It is for Pakistan to complete the work. The first task for them is to convert the meter gauge into broad gauge, which is a must for this rail link."
The official said the government had already spent Rs 10 crore on the renovation of Munabao station, which is ready for operations.
Once operationalised, the Munabao-Khokrapar rail link, which was closed in 1965 after the Indo-Pak war broke out, will become the second rail link between the two countries.
In January 2004, India and Pakistan had reopened the Lahore-Attari (Amritsar) rail link between Delhi and Lahore after a two-year suspension of the Samjhauta Express.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, during the latter's visit to India in April last year, had decided to resume the rail link on the Munabao-Khokrapar sector.
The two countries held talks twice on the issue in October and December 2004.
India had offered to resume the rail link from October 2 last year and later January 1 this year, Pakistan declined to commit to a clear deadline. Islamabad had sought more time since it wanted to change the 127-km rail track between Khokrapar and Mirphurkas from narrow gauge to broad gauge to make it compatible with Indian tracks.
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