KARACHI: The establishment of a marshalling yard at Wazir Mansion railway station will be proved immeasurably beneficial. The facility, if constructed, will be advantageous in terms of significantly enhancing port efficiency, drastically declining turnaround time for containers, massively curtailing the port area congestion and substantially escalating the freight service of Pakistan Railways, revealed in a presentation given to the federal minister of railways Muhammad Azam Khan Swati who visited the Karachi Port Trust on Thursday along with the Pakistan Railways CEO Nisar Ahmad Memon and other senior officers of the department.

Marshalling Yard is a place where railway wagons are shunted and shaped into form of trains besides placing engines and wagons there which are not in use. Currently Pakistan Railways operates a single marshalling yard in Karachi division that is located in Pipri.

During his visit to KPT, the federal minister for Railways Muhammad Azam Khan Swati was holistically briefed about 33 kilometers long rail network at KPT possessing a container handling capacity of 125 million tons. Pakistan Railways and KPT can jointly make a difference and contribute enormously to economic development of the country, remarked the railways minister.

The railways minister also visited the Wazir Mansion station followed by South Asia Pacific Terminal (SAPT), the prime container loading facility in Karachi. He was given a holistic presentation regarding the operational parameters of SAPT with special focus on connectivity of SAPT with Pakistan Railways through rail network. The railways minister was presented with a souvenir in SAPT also.

The minister assured KPT management of support for enhancing share of railways freight so as to reduce the cost of doing business.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021