Bureaucratic delays meant no one could get a ticket for the bus to Lahore on the first day of bookings in Delhi on Monday.

Hordes of people, including journalists and cameramen, were there when the ticket counter at the Delhi Gate Bus Terminal opened at 0900 IST.

But Delhi Transport Corporation officials asked the passengers to wait because they had not received a formal order from the Ministry of External Affairs to sell tickets.

About a dozen passengers kept waiting till 1600 IST, when the order finally arrived, but they were turned back because their documents were not in order.

A DTC official told rediff.com: "The passengers who came to buy the tickets today did not carry proper visas. We can issue tickets only if the visa says that the mode of travel of the visa-holder is bus."

People who came to buy the tickets were issued visas in which the mode of travel was given as 'air'.

Some of them were Pakistanis, who were in India for a visit, the official said.

The service, a boon for middleclass people on both the sides, has generated considerable enthusiasm.

Sukhdev Anand, in-charge of the service, said: "I am receiving phone calls every minute from passengers and journalists. They ask when are we going to start selling tickets and what are the requirements etc."

A one-way ticket in the air-conditioned luxury coach, called Sada-e-Sarhad (Call of the Frontiers), costs Rs 950.

The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation in Lahore sold four tickets on the first day, according to a news agency. The service, which was snapped following the recent downswing in Indo-Pak ties, will resume on Friday.