Pak team to look at sites for consulate in Navi Mumbai

Sources said different sets of sites have been identified, one for housing the consulate on a temporary basis and the other is a plot where a permanent consulate can be built. Both are located in Navi Mumbai. The City Industrial Development Corporation also has space available in some of its buildings in Navi Mumbai which will be shown to the Pakistan High Commission team.

Pakistan had sent a team last year to Mumbai which visited some sites but did not find them appropriate . Last December, when Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran was in Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri had informed him that the sites were far too expensive.

It is expected that Navi Mumbai will provide a more affordable and better option in terms of space. Cost issues, sources said, can be sorted out once Pakistan has made its selection.

Though Islamabad still insists on Jinnah House, the government already has plans to make a South Asian cultural centre there. On Musharraf’s recent request, no decision has yet been communicated down the line.

Besides the consulate issue, India and Pakistan will soon hold technical discussions on starting the Amritsar-Lahore bus. The talks are expected to be held around May 10 at Islamabad in an effort to operationalise the service at the earliest as desired by Singh and Musharraf.

The series of meetings under the topics in the composite dialogue process will also be held soon, with the Defence Secretaries expected to meet around May-end or early June at Islamabad.