Gangtok, July 06: Borrowing a leaf from Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's book of bus diplomacy, Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling will urge him later this month to start a regular bus service between Gangtok and Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, taking advantage of the agreement on border trade between India and China through Sikkim. This is part of Chamling's agenda for his Delhi visit scheduled for July 22, his political advisor B B Gooroong who will accompany him, told a news agency here today.

"Our perception is that a regular bus service between Gangtok and Lhasa will go a long way in bringing the two countries still closer," he said.

The modalities for this will be worked out at the Chief Minister's meeting with the Prime Minister, his first after China agreed on reviving the trade route through Nathula in East Sikkim, Gooroong said. Security measures and infrastructural activities to be taken up in the state besides its immediate environmental concerns in the wake of the trade agreement are the other major points of the agenda to be discussed with Vajpayee, he added.

The talks will include security measures and also keeping a check on the possible influx after the opening of the trade route, the number of new checkposts to be set up and the demographic structure of the state which the state government wants to keep intact, Gooroong said. Bureau Report