Pakistan Railways has planned to start issuing 'e-ticketing' from July 20 this year for all categories across the country. This would help the railways computerise 98 percent of all of its ticketing including passengers and freight booking through credit cards.
Federal minister of Railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said this at a press conference on Monday. Those stations selling tickets of over Rs 100,000 will be linked in the network to avoid corruption in the ticketing system, he added.
He said that the travel time between Karachi and Lahore would be reduced to 6 hours on both up and down route. The passenger business is increasing especially on Karachi-Lahore route, he said, adding that the Pakistan Railways even after launching 23 new trains could not cater to the passenger load, since he took over the railways ministry.
Rasheed said that the experts have surveyed all five bridges in the metropolis and are satisfied with the condition of the bridges. Despite the incident of 'Ran Pathani Bridge', which created serious controversy against railways authority, the PR transported over 3 million passengers, he said.
As far as Mass Transit project is concerned, the matter is already in process in Karachi while the process for Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar would start soon, he informed.
Sheikh Rasheed said that the Prime Minister agreed with the railway ministry to pay pension to 150,000 employees in advance. He categorically rejected speculations over the early dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies and said that they would complete their terms till November this year.