Pakistan Railway's General Manager (Operation) Saleem-ur-Rehman Akhund on Tuesday inspected the project of conversion of railway track from meter to broad gauge, now in full swing from Mirpurkhas to Indian border.
Out of 130-kilometer long track, conversion of 107-kilometer has been completed from meter to broad gauge, while the work on two major bridges is in progress and likely to be completed by November 25.
Talking to newsmen, the Railway GM expressed the hope that entire work of conversion would be completed as per schedule at a cost of Rs one billion by December 30.
Later, Akhund held a review meeting in the office of Railway Divisional Superintendent Junaid Qureshi where he was briefed about operational working of the railway Karachi Division.
He was informed that there had been an increase in the revenue on both passenger and freight sides, which was 44 percent of the total revenue earned on railway system.
The GM directed the officials to further intensify efforts for further revenue increase and completion of all ongoing development projects for system improvement. He was informed that recently 130 new high-speed freight wagons had been received from China and put into operation.
The use of those wagons will reduce the transit time between Karachi and upcountry. These wagons can be run at a speed of 110-kilometer an hour as against the existing speed of 45-kilometer per hour. The distance between Karachi and Lahore is now covered in 24 hours as against over 48 hours the freight trains used to take.