Thus, for the first time, the Tariff Advisory Committee (TAC), the constitutional body for fixing tariffs for the general insurance industry, has asked insurance companies not to charge any extra premium on the DTC service "for the sake of bilateral relations."

This comes at a time when the present international bus routes from India to Bhutan and Nepal are charged hefty premium by the insurance companies.

The 40-km ride to Lahore from Wagah border will carry the usual risk as on any Indian streets. These are damage to the vehicle, loss of baggage, death of a passenger or third party insurance. The premium paid by DTC to Oriental Insurance is mere Rs 13 lakh for damage to the vehicle and Rs 7 lakh for the air conditioning. DTC will also pay Rs 177 as insurancepremium per passenger including that of the Prime Minister.

``As a special case, we have preferred not to charge anything extra though there is a great deal of risk involved in such a route,'' say TAC officials.