KARACHI: Pakistan Railways has planned to launch 20 additional freight trains and 20 additional passenger trains by the end of this year in public-private partnership mode. Railways will also launch a VIP train from March 23, 2019 for the elite class, Federal Minster for Railways Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed said on Friday.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the second freight train started in a joint venture of Marine Group of Companies, which departed from Cantt Station, Karachi to Lahore carrying 75 containers-load of cargo.
Minister said the first freight train launched by Marine Group had so far transported 1500 tons of imported and local cargo to upcountry.
The minister also announced to shift the freight head office to Karachi from Lahore. “Billions of dollars investment is coming to railways in days to come and there would be a revolution through Main Line 1 Project that is meant for replacing tracks from Karachi to Peshawar,” he said.
Shaikh Rasheed emphasized the need of revival of Circular Railways in Karachi.
CEO Marine Group, Asim SIddiqui said following the success of first freight train, the private sector insisted to start second train as well in order to facilitate the business community.
He announced to introduce a third train in March this year. He informed that the first freight train handled 2300 containers during January.
“The business community’s trust is improving on railways and they give preference to the train service as their cargo reaches to their destinations safe and fast. Exporters too are switching to the freight trains considering it more economical and safe”.
CEO of Pak Railways Freight Transport Company, Zafar Ranjha said that Railway’s revenue had surged 35 percent in January because of the freight train. [the_ad id=”31605″]