PM arrives in Amritsar despite political drama

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived at Amritsar on Thursday night to flag off the bus service between Amritsar and Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.

As Dr Singh flags off the Punjab Express, a longstanding prayer of the Sikh community will be answered.

They will now have access to all the Gurdwaras in Pakistan. Nankana Sahib, incidentally, is the birthplace of the first Guru of the Sikhs.

"We expect the bus to roll past Wagah sometime in the afternoon as the customs clearance may take a few hours," said a senior official of Punjab Road Transport Corporation in Amritsar.

The forty-five seat air-conditioned bus has been specially commissioned from Sweden.

In the initial trip, only officials of the Punjab government will visit Nankana Sahib. The swanky bus will cover a distance of over 190 kilometers in about four hours.

The driver has still not been named.

Earlier in the day, speculations were rife that Dr Singh may not travel to Amritsar in the wake of the political developments in New Delhi that saw Congress president Sonia Gandhi resigning from Lok Sabha and as National Advisory Council chairperson.