The first Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus being cleaned before flag-off. (AFP file picture)

Fancy rides on the high road of peace are fine; but issues of bread and butter are more pressing.

The super-luxury Karwan-e-Aman buses cannot lie idle between their fortnightly forays to the Line of Control, the cash-strapped state road transport corporation has decided.

The fleet of six buses must earn its keep by taking ordinary tourists out on sightseeing trips.

“We are now fully utilising the buses for appropriate dividends,” a corporation official said. “These buses now carry tourists on sightseeing tours to resorts like Pahalgam and Gulmarg. These buses are generating good revenue for the corporation.”

So, 24 days a month, the buses ? the Karwan-e-Aman (Caravan of Peace) logo and flags of India and Pakistan painted over them ? shake off their aura of exclusivity and show tourists around Kashmir.

“Two days ahead of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad journey, the buses are handed over to the security agencies for sanitisation and for other security and mechanical checks to ready them for the journey,” the official said.

The transport corporation had bought six Ashok Leyland buses for the showpiece service early this year and fitted them with music systems, television and plush upholstery. But the journey down the Jhelum valley up to Kaman bridge hasn’t been earning enough revenue.

The number of passengers has been falling. Even the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders, who recently toured Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, had preferred personal vehicles.

Chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has promised to make the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus a weekly service, and then a daily affair. But the vacant seats suggest the plan may not be viable.

Only six new passengers boarded the fifth bus that rolled out on June 2. The rest were visitors returning home across the LoC. Today, the sixth run had just one local passenger. It remains to be seen whether the next run of the bus from Kaman bridge to Srinagar brings in Pakistan’s information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, accused of running a militant camp in the late 1980s. The minister has already applied for permit to visit Srinagar and see the grave of his grandfather.

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad service started on April 7 with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagging off two buses. But from the beginning, the shadow of militancy hung over it.

On the evening of April 6, a two-member suicide squad stormed the Tourist Reception Centre in the heart of Srinagar where the passengers were spending the night. The building was burnt down and six people had to be admitted to hospital.

On April 7, two hours before the inaugural peace bus began its journey, BSF personnel detected explosives, connected to a remote-control device near Pattan, 27 km from Srinagar.