The journey of Samjhauta Express

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New Delhi: The Samjhauta Express which originally started on July 22 1976 after the Shimla Agreement, was a daily train that ran between Amritsar and Lahore.

Samjhauta, which means "understanding", has stood for hope to millions of Indians and Pakistanis separated from their relatives after the Partition.

Hundreds of small and medium scale traders also depend on the train for their livelihood.

The daily express, which covered a distance of about 42 kilometres between Amritsar and Lahore, changed to a bi-weekly schedule in 1994.

It was in the late 1980s that the Indian Railways decided to terminate the service at Atari following disturbances in Punjab in the late 1980s.

The train service between Delhi and Atari is called the Atari Express and the three km service between Atari and Wagah is called the Samjhauta Express.

The train service was suspended in 2002 after the attack on the Indian Parliament. But it started running again on January 15, 2004.