Restructuring plan of the Pakistan Railways gathered momentum on Saturday when it announced grounding another six uneconomical passengers trains. "Total number of uneconomical trains that have been scrapped during the last two months is 14", informed sources in the Railway Ministry revealed.
The Railway Ministry had sent a summary to Prime Minister Gilani seeking his approval for the restructuring programme, putting on halt uneconomical trains and closing Railway stations that were incurring huge loss to the national exchequer. However it is a long process and the Ministry has sought a period of two years to complete this exercise, sources maintained.
Sources revealed that 120 uneconomical trains have been short-listed for removal out of which 113 were started by the previous government while 7 trains were started by the current government. According to the plan all the uneconomical passengers trains would be diverted to freight services as soon as the rehabilitation process of the outdated trains is completed.
Pakistan Railways has issued a notification, according to which discontinued passenger trains are as follows: Sakhi Abbas Express, Karachi Mirpur Khas Express and Sialkot Express have been grounded from Saturday. However, Chaltan Express and Tezro Express would be grounded from July 20 whereas Shalimar Express is due to be suspended from July 29.
Chaltan operates on Quetta-Lahore route; Tezro goes from Peshawar to Karachi while Shalimar plies Lahore-Karachi route. According to railway administration, the decision has been taken in view of the loss incurred by the said trains. Pakistan Railway is confronting a severe financial crunch, which has resulted in closure of several passenger train routes.
Railway is facing deficit of Rs 1.5 billion annually because of these trains. The engines of suspended trains will now be used to run freight trains as more than 60 freight trains are stuck at different stations due to non-availability of engines, sources maintained.