Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Saturday that Pakistan Railways would run 40 special trains to accommodate passengers on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr.
The special train operation would start from October 21 thus providing service to around 40,000 passengers from various stations to different destinations, he said talking to media persons.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the PR board had already approved operation for 30 Eid trains and seeing the public confidence and demand it has decided to arrange operation for ten other special trains. Around 60 percent of the seating capacity of 30 Eid trains has been already been reserved by passengers, he added.
He said it would be for the first time that such a massive train operation is being launched on eve of Eid as in the past maximum 8 trains were run on the occasion.
He said this big Eid operation would not only help common man to travel to their destinations to celebrate Eid with their near and dear ones but would also help PR to overcome the losses incurred by it due to collapse of the Ran Pathani bridge.
He said Pakistan railways is taking special care of its passengers to win their lost confidence in the service of the public sector organisation. "We are making all out efforts to pull up Pakistan Railways to international standards," he said. The minister said that PR had already announced 50 percent discounted fare for the Eid day while the Ramazan package announced by it earlier has been running successfully.
According to the schedule on October 21, 22 and 23 almost 10-15 trains each day would leave from Karachi, Quetta, Multan, Narowal and Faisalabad to Lahore, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar.