Week [5th-11th January]
A friendship bus service between India and Nepal via Champawat in Uttarakhand resumed after a gap of 27 years, much to the delight of people on either side of the border who have family and trade ties with each other.
These air-conditioned buses with free Wi-Fi facility, painted with Indian and Nepalese flags, will enter the Nepalese district of Kanchanpur at 6 a.m. everyday and start for Delhi, and return from there at 6 p.m., in-charge of Sharda barrage international police station.
The bus which runs between Kanchanpur in Nepal close to Banbasa border in Champavat district of Uttarakhand and Anand Vihar, Delhi was regularised recently after being run on a trial basis for a week.
No special documents are required to travel in these buses. A bottle of mineral water would be provided free of cost to the passengers. The service was suspended 27 years ago in the wake of the Indo-Nepal Trade and Transit Treaty.
Resumption of the service between the two countries was welcomed by locals on either side of the border as about 10,000 Nepalis travel in these buses daily from Kanchanpur district, Dandel Dhura, Voti, Sapen, Acham, Kalali, Jagbuddha and Siddhartha Nagar areas in Nepal.